Full text of "Fridtiof Nansen, 1861-1893"

See other formats

CT?lDTJOF

^ _ s86i -

//.

LIBRARY OF
WELLESLEY COLLEGE

PRESENTED BY

Charlotte Sniith Tuton, '58

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries

http://www.archive.org/details/fridtiofnansen1800br

€

..^.

^C^t

■^p-4^-w'i

^M--if

^r^ <L- ^

FKIDTIOF NAN SEN

WORKS BY FPJDTIOr XANSEK

THE FIRST CROSSING OF GREENLAND.

With numerous Illustrations and a Map.
Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.

ESKIMO LIFE,

With 31 Illustrations. 8vo. 16s.

LONGMANS, GEEEN, & CO.

London, New York, and Bomba}'.

Frontispiece

FKIDTIOF NANS EN

{From a pholooraph)

FEIDTIOF NANSEN

1861-1893

W. C. BEOGGEE and NOEDAHL EOLFSEN

TRANSLATED BY

WILLIAM AECHEE

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO.

LONDON, NEW YOEK, AND BOMBAY

1896

&-iff"6\ Ckr-loWe $Mi^

Q-

loo
1195

PEBFACB

WfiEN I read and began to translate the following pages
early last summer, I could not but feel that the authors were
somewhat over bold in assuming as a matter of course a
fortunate issue to Fridtiof Nansen's latest enterprise. I could
not but wonder, here and there, whether Fate might not
already have written an ironic comment on some of their
serenely confident forecastings. Events have entirely put to
shame my apprehensions. Fridtiof ISTansen has done what
he set forth to do, and has practically solved the enigma of
the polar regions. If it be objected that he has not reached
the Pole itself, let me simply refer to his own words before
the Eoyal Geographical Society, cited upon page 282 of this
volume. To stand upon the axis of the earth is in itself no
very great matter. IsFansen or another will do this also in
due time. What Nansen has done, in the teeth of scepticism
and discouragement harder to face, perhaps, than the Arctic
ice-pack and the month-long night, is to lead the way into
the very heart of the polar fastnesses, and to show how, with
forethought, skill, and resolution, they can be traversed as
safely as the Straits of Dover. While other explorers have
crept, as it were, towards the Pole, each penetrating, with

VI LIFE OF FEIDTIOF HANSEN

incredible toil, a degree or two farther than the last, Nansen
has at one stride enormously reduced the unconquered dis-
tance, and has demonstrated the justice of his theory as to
the right way of attacking the problem. ISTor is this the crown
of his achievement. As the Duke of Wellington ' gained
a hundred fights, and never lost an English gun,' so Nansen
has now come forth victorious from two campaigns, each
including many a hard-fought fray, and has never lost a
Norwegian life. We have only to read the tragic record of
Arctic exploration in the past to realise the magnitude of this
exploit. It is in no way lessened by the fact that Nansen
has profited by the hard-earned experience of his pre-
decessors. On the contrary, it is the chief glory of this
expedition that absolute intrepidity went hand in hand
with consummate intelligence. The following account, then,
of Fridtiof Nansen's character and training cannot but be
read with all the more interest, since events have so amply
justified his countrymen's confidence in his genius and his
' lacky star.'

W. A.

London : September 26, 1896.

CONTENTS

CHAPTEB PAGE

I. Ancestry . . 1

II. Childhood 17

III. NORDMARKEN 37

IV. In the Polar Sea 51

Y. In Bergen 74

VI. In Naples 100

VII. Fridtiof Nansen as a Biologist. By Gustaf Ketzius . . 112

VIII. Greenland 123

IX. The Great Ice Age I39

X. Nansen's Greenland Expedition — Preparations — Plan —

Equipment 159

XL Across Greenland 178

XII. The Scientific Significance of the Greenland Expedition 201

XIII. Eva Nansen — an Ill-starred Interview. By Nordahl

EOLFSEN 210

XIV. Arctic Expeditions from the Earliest Times. By Aksel

Arstal 224

XV. The Contributions of Norwegian Seamen to Arctic Geo-
graphy. By Professor H. Mohn 268

XVI. With the Current 277

XVII. At Home and Abroad 287

XVIII. Baron E. von Toll and the Nansen Expedition . . . 325

XIX. New Siberia and the North Pole. By Baron Edward von

Toll 348

XX. On Board the Fram. By W. C. Brogger 358

Index 887

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS

PLATES

Fetdtiof Xaxsex. From a Photograph Frontispiece

Mes. Naxsex To face page 210

The Deawixg-boom at Godthaab „ •, 212

Xaxsex's Stttdy „ „ 215

Lit „ „ 222

Feidtiof Xaxsex. From a Drawing by E. "WerensMold . ., „ 288

The Lauxch of the Fsam „ ., 311

Otto Sveedkcp '■■ „ 366

ILLUSTEATIONS IX TEXT

PARK

Haxs Naxsex 3

Baeox Cheistiax Feedeeik YiLHELii "Webel-Jaelsbeeg .... 9

Baeoxess C. F. Y. WEDEL-jAKiiSBEEG (Xansen's Grandmother) . . 11

Feedtiof Naxsex axd his Fathee 17

Naxsex"s Fathee IS

n.axsex's mothee 21

Geeat Feoex— The D-svellixg-house 23

The Fakxi Bueldixgs at Geeat Feoex 24

Xaxsex as a Child 25

Naxsex as a Boy 26

Naxsex as a Youth ........... 31

Xaxsex as a Studext 39

Ix the Polae Sea. I. 53

Ix the Polae Sea. II. . . 59

Ix the Polar Sea. Ill 66

De. Daxielssex 75

X. LIFE OF FPJDTIOF NANSEN

PAGE

Portrait IIB

Stone Ice 153

Portrait 159

The Members op the Greenland Expedition 179

puisortok 183

Under Sail in the Moonlight — Crevasses Ahead ! 192

Nansen and Sverdrup in the Canvas Boat 194

Fridtiof Nansen. Bust by Lessing 228

Elling Carlsen 264

SrvERT Kristian Tobiesen 265

Edward Holm Johannesen 268

Nansen on the Ice (Summer Dress) 280

Nansen on the Ice (Winter Dress) 281

Sketch by E. Werenskiold 287

Nansen's Home 296

Sketch by E. Werenskiold 308

Nansen and Mrs. Nansen on Snow-shoes 317

Sketch by E. Werenskiold 89,3

Von Toll's Expedition to the New Siberia Islands .... 333

At Urassalach 338

The Fram in Bergen 359

Scott Hansen 362

Jacobsen; Hendriksen 364

MOGSTAD 365

Amundsen ; Nordal 368

johansen 369

Juell 371

Blessing 376

Petterson 382

Sketch by E. Werenskiold 385

LIST OF MAPS

Greenland according to latest Authorities . . . To face j^age 128
Utmost Limits of Land-ice in Europe during Great

Ice Age >! » 139

The Polar Area >) »> 224

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTEE I

ANCESTEY^

Neaely three centuries ago, in the same Polar darkness
which has now, winter after winter, brooded over Fridtiof
l^ansen and his ship, a boy of sixteen watched the Northern
Lights shimmering and shooting over his head. In his eyes
they were ' vapours which the sun draws up from the earth
into the air, some in the upper, some in the lower atmo-
sphere. They then become ignited and burn ; whence the
many fiery marvels seen in the skies.'

It was Fridtiof Hansen's ancestor, Hans N'ansen,^ who
had come to the White Sea in his uncle's ship, hailing from
Flensborg — in those days quite an adventurous enterprise.
They had practically no charts, they were scantily supplied
with instruments, and they had to keep cannon and cutlasses
in readiness. In the course of the vo3^age, indeed, they
had been twice overhauled and plundered by the English.
Now they were fast in the ice at Kola. But the intel-
ligent bo}^, eager for knowledge, did not permit himself to

^ See DansJc liistorish Tidsshrift 3 E. I ; Personalliistorish Tidsslfrift,
1892 ; Yngvar Nielsen, Grev H. Wedel Jarlsberg I.

~ Hans Nansen was born November 28, 1598, at Flensborg, his father's
name being Evert Nansen, his mother's Maren Pedersdatter.

2 LIFE OF FPJDTIOF NANSEN

be depressed. He employed the time in learning E,ussian,
and in the summer, when the uncle bent his course southward
again, his nephew did not accompany him. He preferred to
stay behind and learn more. He travelled alone ' through
several districts of Eussia to the town of Kuwantz.' From
Kuwantz ^ he took ship in September for Copenhagen.

His character came early to maturity, and his powers
could not brook inaction. He had not completed his twenty-
first year when King Christian IV. placed him at the head
of an expedition to the rich fur regions about the Petschora.
But the ice was too much for him. He had to make up his
mind to winter at Kola. Here he received a commission
from the Czar of Eussia, and undertook, by imperial order,
an exploration of the coast of the White Sea. ISFot until he
reached Archangel did he rejoin his ship.

After that he held a command for eighteen seasons in the
service of the Iceland Company. He was by nature a keen
observer and a born leader of men, full of alert practicality,
and yet with a strong literary bent. And he was eminently
disposed to share with others the fruits of his reading.
' When I had nothing else to do,' he writes, 'I copied out
extracts from the Bible, and from various cosmographical
and geographical works, to serve as an index and common-
place-book for future reference. . . And when, a little while
ago, I read it through again, I thought that perhaps there
might be others who would be glad to know these things,
but who, on account of other occupations and so forth, had
neither time nor opportunity to study the great works
on cosmography. For the benefit of such persons I have
given to the press this brief digest.' The title ran: Com-
pendium Cosmographicum ; being a short description of

' Possibly Kowno, at the confluence of the Wihia with the Nienien.

ANCESTEY 3

the entire earth — including, in particular, matters relating
to the heavens, the sun and moon, and the other planets and
stars, their movements and their courses, as well as the four
elements and their differences, and the world with its divers
kingdoms and countries, and its principal cities. Treating,
furthermore, of the sea and of navigation, with certain

HANS NAN SEN

serviceable directions thereto appertaining. Collected from
various books, and transcribed by Hans Nansen. Printed in
Kiobenhaffn (Copenhagen), by Andrea Koch, 1633, at the
expense of Peder Andersen, bookseller, and sold by him.'
Here are astronomy and physics, geography and chronology,
directions for taking the altitude, tables of exchange, tide-

4 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

tables, tlie declination of the sun and stars, etc. Some of
the information is certainly rather surprising to the modern
reader, who is no longer satisfied with the theory that
' thunder has its source and origin in a sulphurous humour
in the earth, which, being drawn upwards by the sun into
mid air, becomes mixed with watery vapours and clouds, and
then, by perpetual movement, and by the action of the sun's
rays, at last becomes heated, whereupon a terrific strife
ensues between the hot vapours and the cold ; and since the
dense chill clouds afford no outlet for this energy, it violently
bursts its way through them, with the noise and reverbera-
tion which we call thunder.'

It is also impressive to learn, under ' Chronology,'
that on Grood Eriday, 1276, a Dutchwoman, in her forty-
second year, gave birth to 346 children, ' half of them boys,
and half of them girls, who all lived long enough to be
baptised. The boys were called John and the girls
EHzabeth. All died immediately after baptism.'

These and other marvels, however, belonged to the age.
What particularly interests ns is to hear what he thought
of the northernmost regions, ' Borealia.'

' Borealia,' he says, ' is the common name of all the
countries lying northward of Europe, Asia and America,
rioiit up to the North Pole, some of which are little known
to us, and some not at all, on account of the intense cold
and ice which reign there. The most famous among these
countries are Greenland, Grenland, Bear Island, Jan Mayen
Island, Nova Zembla and Friszland, all of which are cold
and barren lands, whereof little need Ije said.

' Greenland is a country of very great extent, belonging
to tlie Kingdom of Norway. Its coasts were explored in
former years by the Norwegians, and were settled by them,

ANCESTRY 5

two Bishoprics being there established. But it is now many
years since Greenland proper has been visited, and, although
it lies not far north-west of Iceland, it has become so
entirely unknown to us that we are uncertain whether the
Christian religion is still practised there.

' Grrenland lies JSF.N.E. of the JNTorth Cape, and is believed
by some to join on to Greenland. It was discovered by
the English, and is visited every year by a number of
English, Danish and Dutch ships, for the sole purpose
of catching whales, which they boil down for train-oil.
This is the northernmost land now known, viz. : over
80° north latitude, and is called by the Dutch Spitz Bergen.

' Bear Island lies about midway between the JSTorth
Cape and Grenland, and is only a small island, where the
whale and the walrus are found.

' Friszland lies a little south-west of Iceland, and is not
now visited.

' Nova Zenibla (that is to say, JSTew Land) lies directly
opposite the Samoyedes, which belong to Eussia ; between
them is Veigabit. This region was first discovered by the
Bussians, and being quite barren, is now abandoned.'

The ' Compendium Cosmographicum ' became a popular
handbook, so much read by seafaring men and others, that
four editions were exhausted in the author's lifetime.
Indeed, we gather that up to a few years ago it had not
quite gone out of use. The copy now in the possession
of the Nansen family came, according to a well-authenticated
tradition, direct from a skipper who sailed by it. Inside
the old cover, the late owner of the book has inscribed the
followino' testimonial :

' This book is of great use to seafaring folk. Ole Borgersen
Aas. 1841.'

6 LIFE or FRIDTIOF NANSEX

Thus the handbook of the gallant old Arctic skipper
may be said to have done service down to the very-
threshold of the time when his descendant was preparing
to add new 'courses' to those he had so diligently laid
down — ' courses ' across Greenland and to the North
Pole.

At the age of forty, Hans Nansen begins to rise in the
world ; and soon he exchanges the command of a ship's
crew for that of the burgesses of Copenhagen. He first
became town councillor, then one of the four burgomasters,
and in 1654 he held the chief place among the four.
Shrewd, ready-witted, eloquent, accustomed to command,
and endowed with a firm will and invincible energy, he
seemed specially created to take part, and a leading part,
in the critical times which followed.

In 1658 the Swedish king, Karl Gustav, declared war
and invaded Zealand. The Estates met^ at the Palace, the
ro^^al message was read, and the king addressed them in
person. It fell to the lot of Hans Nansen to answer that
the burghers ' would stand by the king through thick and,
thin,' and the populace behind him shouted their assent.
Not only was the integrity of their native land at stake, but
civic freedom and independence as well. On the following
day, the 10th of August 1658, the Privy Council was
obliged to issue a proclamation ' which was as good as a
patent of nobility to all the merchants and handicraftsmen
of Copenhagen.' Karl Gustav understood its significance.
' Since the burghers have obtained such privileges,' he
exclaimed, ' no doubt they'll stand a tussle.' And during
this ' tussle ' the leading Burgomaster of Copenhagen had no
peace either l)y da}- or night. Earthworks had to be con-
structed, ditches filled, })rovisions laid in, soldiers quartered,

ANCESTRY 7

the burghers drilled and commanded, and public order pre-
served in the midst of a concourse of people crowding into
the city from every side. ' We find him now at home,
opening his plate chest and his money-box, placing great
sums at the king's disposal, lending him his carriage and
horses, and all the time doing his best to keep up the spirits
of his own family ; now in the Town Hall sitting in council
or on the bench ; now in the Chamber, now with the king ;
then again at a regimental inspection, or on the tire-watch
tower, or at the outworks, with the bullets picking men off
on every side ; now listening to the sermons which were
preached on the ramparts, now going the rounds with the
night patrol.' ^ And when it comes to meeting the enemy
outside the fortifications, the indefatigable Burgomaster is
still in the van.

This leader of his fellow-townsmen and champion of their
privileges shows the same promptitude and presence of
mind in the days of the revolution which makes of Denmark
an hereditary kingdom. As we see him meeting Otto Krag's
threat of imprisonment, by pointing to the alarm-bell in
the tower of Our Lady's Church, we read in his face an
indomitable strength of will and tenacity of purpose which
cannot but remind us of the subject of these pages. Where
these qualities re-appeared in the intervening family history,
and where they lay dormant, we have not sufiicient data
to determine. But it is certain that there are remarkable
points of similarity between the old Burgomaster and his
grandson's grandson's grandson.

It would seem as though Fridtiof Fansen himself were
conscious of this hereditary strain in his character. In
one of his letters to his father, he speaks of the Nansen

^ Fr. Hammerich, in HistorisTc Tidsshrift. 3rd series, i. ]). 204,

8 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

pride, which in his case, when occasion demands, takes the
form of an adamantine stubbornness.

But this pride does not descend to him on the male
side alone ; through his mother he inherits the blood of the
Wedels. Grustav Wilhelm von Wedel, a scion of this
originally German stock, came to Denmark during the
Scanian war as commander of a strong auxiliary force,
which the Prince-Bishop of Milnster placed at the disposal
of Christian Y. He swore fealty to the Danish king, and
was appointed 'lieutenant-marshal.' In 1683 he bought
from U. F. Gyldenlove the former barony of Griffenfeld
near Tonsberg in Norway, including an old royal residence
at Sem, now called Jarlsberg. At the New Year (1684),
Lieut. -Marshal von Wedel received the title of Count
Jarlsberg, and was subsequently appointed commander-in-
chief of the army in Norway.^ He superintended the re-
construction of the fortress of Akershus (near Christiania),
and took a leading part in the fortification of the frontier
from Frederiksten to Kristiansfjeld. This energetic and
God-fearino' man died in 1717. His father and o-randfather
had been officers in the service of the Duke of Pomerania.
In the Thirty Years' War, too, his father had commanded
a regiment of cavalry under the Swedish General Baner,
and earned the nickname of ' Dare-devil.'

The baron}?- of Jarlsberg was inherited by the grandson
of the first count, who went in quest of military adventure
to Italy and Spain, and had an arm disabled during a
Spanish invasion of Morocco. His great-grandson was
Count Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg, the famous political leader
of 1814, afterwards Viceroy (Statholder) of Norway.

' "Which, at that time, and for more than a century afterwards, belonged
to the Danish crown.

ANCESTRY

Count Herman had a younger brother, Baron Christian
Frederik Vilhehn of Fornebo, whose daughter was the mother
of Fridtiof Nansen. Thus, if pride and spirit of adventure
may be said to he at the root of the father's family-tree.

BARON CHRISTIAN F. V. WEDEL-JARLSBERG (NANSEN'S GRANDFATHER)

every branch of the mother's bears evidence of the same
quahties.

A few words more about the Nansen family. Hans
Nansen, Municipal President, Privy Councillor, and Judge
of the Supreme Court, died at Copenhagen, November 12,
1667. A daughter of his eldest son, Michael Nansen, was

10 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XANSEN

married to the celebrated Peter GrifFenfeld. A younger
son, Hans Nansen, was Municipal President of Copenhagen
at the time of his death in 1718. His grandson was
Ancher Anthony Nansen, with whom the male line re-
moved to Norway. In 1761 he became district magistrate
of Outer Sogn, and there married a lady of the name of
Leierdahl, a member of the Geelmuyden family. His only
son was called Hans Leierdahl Nansen. This name is not
unknown in the political history of Norway ; and although
the points of resemblance between his character and his
grandson's are few and not easy to specify, we must
nevertheless give some account of him.

He was only a year old when his father died, and he
passed more than thirty years in Denmark^the years of
his education and of his early official career — ^before he
returned to Norway, He himself has, with ample reason,
described this period of his life as far from happy. He
was divorced from his first wife, who died in 1862, as
Abbess of the Convent of Estvadgaard in Denmark ; and
the divorce was by no means the only trouble that fell to
his lot in these years.

It was in Denmark that he assumed the sonorous title of
Provincial Judge, which he could never after be induced to
drop, although he held other offices of very different and
more extensive jurisdiction.

On his return to Norway he became, in September 1809,
district- magistrate of Guldal, in the province of Trondhiem,
a post which he filled for three years and a half, earning
the reputation of a zealous magistrate and an agreeable
member of society. He was a leading spirit in the Trondhiem
Dramatic Club, and a fertile ' occasional ' poet. He himself
has called tliese his happiest days, and when he was offered

ANCESTRY

promotion to another district, lie hesitated whether to
accept it.

It was at this time, too, that he entered pohtical hfe.

BARONESS C. F. V. WJEDEL-JAELSBERCt (NANSEN'S GRANDMOTHER)

Wlien hostihties with Sweden broke out in 1813, he com-
posed a war song for the soldiers of Trondhiem :

' Alt Stridsliornet frygtelig l_yder.
At drage fra elskede Hjem
Ind-, Ud- og Optrg/nder det byder
og ile til Ledingsfserd frem.' ^

' ' Already the war-horn rmgs forth terribly. It summons the men of Inner,
Outer, and Upper Trondhiem to quit their beloved homes, and dash forward
to battle.'

12 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

The song is an. average specimen of the martial rhyming
of the period. Its author felt, in common with most of the
people of Trondhiem, that the issue at stake was whether
their province should pass under Swedish rule or remain
Norwegian. Therefore it is that his muse speaks in terms
of provincial no less than of national enthusiasm :

' . . . blandt Fiendens ttetteste Haabe
freni, Tre^iider ! hinanden tilraabe.
Og Dynger af faldne og Stiyiiime af Blod
skal vidne, at seirende Tr/iider der stod.' ^

It was this enthusiasm for the unity of JS^orway which
inspired Xansen's political action when, on the conclusion of
the Peace of Kiel, the Viceroy, Prince Kristian Frederik,
undertook his famous winter journey to Trondhiem.

Hansen's name is not appended to the address with
which the people of the province prepared to greet the prince,
setting forth the popular desire for constitutional govern-
ment. This is not, as might be supposed, a mere chance.
I^ansen did not believe that the time had come for this
move ; he thought the first point was to secure beyond all
question the independent existence and integrity of Norway.

in his festival poems, however, Nansen did fervent
homage both to his country and to the prince.

These poems of Hansen's give true expression to the
feeling then prevalent in the north of Norway, the key-note
of which was fear for the dismemberment of ' o-amle Norsje '
and her absorption into Sweden.

In March 1814, Nansen left Trondhiem for the district
known as J^ederen, situated in the extreme south-west of
Norwav, between Stavansrer and Ewersund.

' ' Into the densest masses of the enemy, press forward, men of Trondhiem;
and let your war-cry pass from month to mouth. Then heaps of slain and rivers
of ]>\n()(\ shall bear witness that there the sons of Trondhiem stood victorious.'

7\NCESTRY 13

In his new sphere of activity he found the popular
sentiment radically different from that which prevailed in
the north. Here the pressure exercised by the war with
England upon all the conditions of life produced another
shade of provincial feeling. But there was no more inclina-
tion here than in the north to renounce one jot or tittle of
Norway's rights.

When I^ansen, as representative of the Stavanger district,
took his place in the first Provisional Storthing, the brief
war, and the way in which it appeared to have been con-
ducted, had impressed upon him the conviction that Norway
ouo-ht to enter into an alliance with Sweden. But the terms

of this alliance must be as honourable to Norway as
language could make them. It should unmistakably bear
the stamp of a voluntary arrangement, and in every depart-
ment in which amalgamation was not unavoidably necessary,
the freedom and independence of Norway should be set
forth in clear and unequivocal terms. No clause should be
allowed to figure in the Norwegian Constitution which could
give the Swedes the slightest semblance of supremacy.

By not a few of his contemporaries, Nansen was regarded
as an empty w^indbag ; and this unflattering opinion was
probably not quite without foundation. He was uncon-
scionably loquacious ; so much so that he and his colleague
Justice Koren were likened to buckets in a well, for no
sooner did one of them subside after speechifying than the
other popped up in his stead. And the fact that he was
decidedly lacking in the graces of orator}^ made Nansen
appear all the more irrepressible.

However, he was a man of real ability and a fervent
patriot. It ought not to be forgotten that it was he who,
on August 2, 1815, moved and carried the proposition that

14 LIFE OF FFtlDTIOF NANSF]N

the Storthing should appoint a committee for the revision
of the ministers' portfolios, an important advance towards
establishing the constitutional responsibility of the Cabinet.
' Both in the newspapers and among the public,' says the
historian, Yngvar Nielsen, ' there was much rejoicing over
the Storthing's decision. People felt that now they had
broken away completely from the trammels of the past, and
that they had learnt what constitutional government really
meant.' ^ In 1818 jSTansen returned to private life, but in
1821 he again sat in the Storthino-.

With all recognition for the courage and lyric fervour
of his character, it must be frankly confessed that his tongue
was an unruly member, and that he was reckless both in
speech and in writing. Few men in our public life have
been so ready to cast grave aspersions on their opponents.
At the same time these charges were no doubt based on
honest conviction, arrived at a little too easily.

Towards V. F. K. Christie he was bitterly hostile,
denouncino- him as a henchman of the Swedish and
reactionary party.'- When Christie in 1815 tried to carry
by a rush, as it were, a motion for removing to Bergen
the headquarters of the Norwegian Bank, Nansen thwarted
his design with admirable promptitude of resource. It is
this episode which is still daily recalled in the common

^ Norges Historie efter ISlJf.

- The Provisional Storthing of 1814 presented Christie with a gold loving-
cup, in recognition of the ability and patriotism witli which he had conducted
the momentous negotiations with Sweden. In 1815, when the Opposition no
longer thought Christie ' stalwart ' enough, Nansen gave expression in the
following epigram to the gathering ill-will towards the red-haired President,
who went by the nickname of Fuchs (F^ox) :

Fuchs got a golden cup

When Freedom first drew breath ;
With wine he filled it up,

And drank tlie bantling's death.

ANCESTRY 15

saying : ' " Egersund is a pretty little town, and that's where
/ live." said Jndge Xansen.'

At the close of a prolonged sitting of the Storthing, on
May 1, 1821, Nansen was seized with a paralytic stroke,
and died on the fifteenth of the same month, at midda3^
His funeral took place on May 21. Dean Sigwardt, speaking
at the grave, said : ' Whatever was his inmost conviction,
that he spoke out frankly, and he proved himself in word
and deed faithful to king and country, and an upright,
just, impartial friend to truth and righteousness.'

Those who accompanied him to his last resting-place
sang at parting :

' Hjertets xldel, Venskabs Unclerpant,
niaatte Venners Hjerte til dig drage ;
till nied Snillet Fromhed du forbandt,
givet Haandslag aldrig tog tilbage.' ^

Judge Nansen married a second time in 1810, the lady
being Vendelia Christina Louisa, daughter of Court-Printer
MuUer, of Copenhagen. An intimate friend of the family
says in a letter to the present writers : ' Mrs. Nansen
was a woman of uncommon ability, highly educated,
remarkably well versed in languages, possessed of strong
literary tastes, and of no small capacity as a writer.
Especially in her younger days, she was witty, quick
at repartee, and excellent company. Many apt sayings of
hers, as well as of her husband's, were in circulation. Her
charming and hospitable house was a social centre in
Christiania from 1845 to 1868, the meeting-place of a large
circle, principally composed of well-known and respected
official families. Several times, on the occasion of Mrs.

' ' The nobility of thy heart, friendship's pledge, could not but draw thy
friends' hearts to thee ; for thou didst combine piety with ability, and didst
never draw back a hand once outstretched.'

16 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAN SEN

JN'ansen's birthday (May 2nd), private theatricals were
given, the prime mover in which was Miss Augusta
Hagerup, the sister of one leading statesman and aunt
of another, and a niece of Henrik StefFens.' We may
possibly trace in Fridtiof Nansen, under diflerent forms,
certain characteristics of his grandfather and grandmother.
He too can be reckless, albeit in an absolutely different
fashion ; he too has a strong j)oetic tendency, though it
seeks absolutely different modes of expression. And
although his love of action and his scientific talent are
his salient characteristics in the public eye, he has also,
as we shall see in due time, a strong taste for literature
and art, combined with marked ability as a popular author.
But whatever uncertainty there may be as to the
inherited elements in his character, there can be no doubt
as to the influence exercised upon him by the home of his
childhood.

CHILDHOOD

CHAPTEE II

CHILDHOOD

Nansen himself says in one of liis letters (March 30, 1885) :
^ Is it not really wonderful ? If any one may be excused for
believing in his lucky star, it is surely I — so often have ex-
traordinary chances happened,
just at the crucial moments of
my life, which seemed to point
the way for me.' The truth of
this utterance wiU amply appear
in the following pages ; but
even at this point we need not
hesitate to affirm that his lucky
star was in the ascendant from
his cradle upwards ; gave him
just the home he needed, and
precisely the natural environ-
ment which, without any
foresight on his part, disciplined
and prepared him for long
journeys and lofty goals.

Fridtiofs father, Baldur
Fridtiof Nansen, was born in Egersund in 1817. After
the death of his father in the twenties, Baldur ISTansen's
mother removed from Egjersund to Stavangjer, for the sake

FRIDTIOF NANSEN AND HIS FATHER

18 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

of lier son's education. Here she lived till 1835, when he
matriculated at the University of Christiania.

' He was industrious,' says that friend of the family whom
we have just quoted, ' well-behaved and exemplary in every
respect. His abilities were not brilliant, but, being strictly
and plainly brought up, and stimulated by the influence of
his clever mother, he passed all his examinations with a cer-

NANSEN S FATHER

tain distinction, and became an accomplished jurist. He
had none of his parents' wit and fancy ; but he was noted
for his thorouglily refined, amiable and courteous manners
and disposition.'

He became Eeporter to the Supreme Court ; but he was
principally employed in finance and conveyancing. He
enjoyed unbounded confidence.

CHILDHOOD 19

Those who have only known by sight the shghtly built
little man, so precise in all his ways, a gentleman of the old
school, and one to whom the pleasures of sport were entirely
foreign, may be inclined to think that there could scarcely
be a sharper contrast, mental and physical, than that
between the father and the son. But a closer examination
will reveal a point of resemblance. Fridtiof Kansen's designs
are brilliant ; but he would never have been able to carry
them out had he not from early childhood trained and de-
veloped his powers to the uttermost. This is apparent in his
sporting exploits, no less than in his scientific studies. A
Peer Gynt can conceive the plan of flooding the Sahara
with the waters of the Atlantic,^ but the man who is to do
it is not content with the luminous idea of his fertile brain.
And it is just this immutable steadfastness to his own ideals,
this passionate, and at the same time conscientious absorp-
tion in all the details of his work, whether in the way of
physical training or mental development, that is so charac-
teristic of Fridtiof Nansen. This orift of thorouo^hness he
doubtless owes to his father.

The elder Nansen possessed another quality which
comes out strongly in his private correspondence. He was
a father in the most emphatic sense of the word. He could
be strict, because he instinctively apj)lied to the bringing
up of his children the principles which had governed his
own. He could wield the cane in the good old style ; but
he had a fine and sensitive nature, and was full of watchful
care for his child's future. He never made his will an
obstacle in the way of the boy's development. He was
always inclined (for this we have much documentary
evidence) to waive his own views for the sake of his son's

1 Ibsen, Peer Gynt. Act IV. sc. 5.

c 2

20 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

advancement. We will quote here a few lines which indicate
his feeling for his son. They form the beginning of a letter
written on September 4, 1882, shortly after Fridtiof Nansen
had become Curator of the Bergen Museum, and a month
after his return home from his first Arctic voyage with the
sealer Viking.

' Dear Fridtiof, — I write these lines to let you know
something that you certainly have no suspicion of. I am
longing for you intensely, and I miss you more and more
every day. When you were away for five months on your
Arctic adventures, of course I missed you too. But I was
always looking forward to our meeting, thinking, "The time
will soon pass. Our Saviour will graciously preserve him on
his way, and when I do get him back again, no doubt I shall
be able to keep him with me all the longer." Then, too,
the happy confidence that the journey would be particularly
advantageous to your future kept up my spirits. But all
that is changed. Our paths are now almost completely
sundered, so far as this world goes. The days will seem
terribly empty for the old man. But I must console myself
exactly as I did during the Arctic voyage. People who
understand these things all declare that this post will be of
immense service in advancing you in the world, and will
enormously facilitate your studies. . . . '

Baldur Nansen's first wife was the daughter of Major-
General Sorensen, and sister to the wife of the poet Jorgen
Moe. His second wife (Fridtiof's mother) was Adelaide
Johanna Isidora, nee Wedel-Jarlsberg, who also had been
married before. Mrs. Adelaide Nansen is described as a tall
and stately lady, capal^le and resolute, even-tempered and
straightforward, without any pretension on the score of
birth and ancestry. She had a masculine will. It was

CHILDHOOD

greatly against the wishes of her strict and aristocratic
father that she married a baker's son for her first husband.
However, she carried her point, and her mother appears to
have sided with her in this afiair of the heart. The parents
were not at the marriage, although they had given their
consent.

nansen's mother

As a young girl she had defied opinion and cultivated
that sport which her son was afterwards to render world-
famous. She was devoted to snow-shoeing, which was at
that time thought unwomanly and even improper. As a
housewife, she was one of those who know every nook and

corner of the house from attic to cellar-

-active, managmg.

2il LIFE OF FRIDTIOF HANSEN

ready with her hands and not afraid of the coarsest work.
If the servant had blistered her fingers, the lady of the
house would herself take hold and wring out the wet linen.
She worked in the garden, and she made her boys' clothes.
They had no other tailor until they were eighteen years
old. JN^evertheless, she found time to acquire the knowledge
she had not stored up in early youth. Her will power and
love of activity, her intrepidity, her practical and resolute
nature, have descended to her son.

Mr. and Mrs. Nansen, after their marriage, settled down
upon a small property belonging to her at Great Froen,
in West Aker, Here Fridtiof was born on October 10,
1861.

In the choice of his birthplace, his lucky star, as we
have said before, had ordered things for the best. Here
was country life, here were cows and horses, geese and
hens, hills for snow-shoeing on every side, great forests close
at hand, and, only some two miles and a half away, an
excellent school, one of the best in Christiania. These two
miles and a half were reckoned a mere nothing in the
Nansen household. First to school in the morning, and
back again, then, on summer afternoons, down to the fortress
to learn to swim — that makes a good ten miles of a hot
summer's day, to say nothing of minor wanderings. And
there were invariably fights by the way — systematic
training, be it observed, from the very first.

Frijen farmyard was the scene of the boy's earliest expedi-
tions, and it was not Arctic cold, but torrid heat that first
imperilled his life. One day when he was three years old,
and still in frocks, he stood hammering away at a wheel-
barrow, no doubt trying to mend it, when, to the consterna-
tion of those in the kitchen, a column of smoke was seen

CHILDHOOD

to be rising from liis person. ' He's on fire ! ' was the cry.
Out rushed the housekeeper, and tore his clothes off his
back. In the course of his wanderings, he had visited
the brew-house, where some sparks from the fire had lodged
in his petticoats ; and behold ! he was within an ace of

GREAT FROEN — THE DWELLING-HOUSE

being burnt to death in blissful unconsciousness that
anything was amiss.

The Frogner river flowed right past the front door
at Froen, and here Fridtiof and his younger brother
would bathe in the fresh of the evening, in the coldest
pool they could find. Indeed, the younger of the two
would sometimes nearly perish with the cold, so that after

LIFE OF FRiDTlOF NANSEN

coming out of the water he had to be dragged about at
a brisk trot, in the costume which preceded all fashions and
modes of dress, in order to keep life and warmth in his body.

Into this same river they fell through the ice in the
winter, and when their m.other appeared on the scene she
would find Fridtiof in the act of fishing his brother out.
And it was in the Frogner river that Fridtiof himself came
near to losing his life.

But it also presented a peaceful means of livelihood.

^A^^^

THE FARM BUILDINGS AT GREAT FROEN

They selected from among the pea-sticks those made of
juniper, rolled their trousers well up, and went digging
among the decayed leaves in the garden for bait, which
they stored in the turned-up portion of their breeches.
Then they went and fished for trout or minnows. Now
and then the hook would go astray and stick fast in Fridtiof's
under lip ; whereupon Mrs. Nansen would have recourse
to father's razor, make a resolute incision and extract

CHILDHOOD

the foreign body. JSTo fuss or pother on either side. JSTot
so mach as a sound.

Here at Froen he first ran his head against the ice
— the rough ice in the yard. When the Uttle five-year-
old rushed into the kitchen, there was scarcely a white spot
left on his face, for the blood that trickled down it. He
would not shed a tear, and was only afraid of being-
scolded. But from that day to
this he wears his first ice-medal
in the shape of a scar.

There was a great leaf-plant
down in the garden, from the
fronds of which the boys contrived
to make weapons of offence,
filling them with little stones and
gravel, and then slinging them
in each other's faces, where they
burst like shells. They made
spears of pea-sticks, and were
great in shields and wooden
swords, as well as darts feathered
with paper.

They hunted squirrels with
dog and bow. ' Storm,' the dog, would chase the squirrels
up trees, where the little creatures found a tolerably secure
asylum ; for the arrows never hit them. Finally, Fridtiof,
inspired by Indian tales, hit upon a devilish device which he
thought must prove fatal. He anointed the arrow-head with
the juice of a poisonous mushroom, so that a wound from
it meant certain death. But the arrows somehow did no
more execution, although he also tipped them with melted
lead to make them carry better.

NANSEN AS A CHILD

1^6

LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NAXSEN

After that he took to a new variety of weapon — cannons.
He stuffed them to the muzzle with powder, but could
not get it to ignite. Then he made a maroon, and poked
it about so much that it exploded in his face. The cannon
ultimately burst ; and it was again his mother's task to take
him aside and pick out the powder grain by grain.

He himself tells the story of his first snow-shoes, and his
first great leap :

' I am not speaking of
the very first pair of all —
they were precious poor ones,
cut down from cast-off snow-
shoes which had belonged
to my brothers and sisters.
They were not even of the
same length. But Mr. Fa-
britius, the printer, took pity
upon me ; " I'll give you a
pair of snow-shoes," he said.
Then spring came and then
summer, and with the best
will in the world one couldn't
go snow-shoeing. But Fa-
britius's promise sang in my
ears, and no sooner had the autumn come and the fields
begun to whiten with hoar-frost of a morning, than I
placed myself right in his way where I knew he would
come driving by.

'"I say ! What about those snow-shoes ? "
' " You shall have them right enough," he said, and
laughed, l^mt I returned to the charge day after day :
" What about tliose snow-shoes ?"

NANSEN AS A BOY

CHILDHOOD 27

' Then came winter. I can still see my sister standing in
the middle of the room with a long, long parcel which she
said was for me. I thought she said, too, it was from
Paris. But that was a mistake, for it was the snow-shoes
from Fabritius — a pair of red-lacquered ash snow-shoes
with black stripes. And there was a long staff too, with
shining blue-lacquered shaft and knob. I used these snow-
shoes for ten years. It was on them I made my first
big jump on Huseby Hill, where at that time the great
snow-shoe races were held. We boys were not allowed
to go there. We might range all the other hills round
about, but the Huseby Hill was forbidden. But we could
see it from Froen, and it lured us day after day till we
couldn't resist it any longer. At first I started from the
middle of the hill, like most of the other boys, and all went
well. But presently I saw there were one or two who
started from the top ; so of course I had to try it. Off I
set, came at frantic speed to the jump, sailed for what
seemed a long time in space, and ran m}^ snow-shoes deep
into a snow-drift. We didn't have our shoes fastened on in
those days, so they remained sticking in the drift, while I,
head first, described a fine arc in the air. I had such way
on, too, that when I came down again I bored into the
snow up to my waist. There was a moment's hush on the
hill. The boj^s thought I had broken my neck. But as
soon as they saw there was life in me, and that I was begin-
ning to scramble out, a shout of mocking laughter went up ;
an endless roar of derision over the entire hill from top to
bottom.

' After that, I took part in the Huseby Hill races and
won a prize. But I didn't take it home ; for I was put to
shame on that occasion as well. It was the first time I had

28 LIFE OF FPJDTIOF NANSEA"

seen the Telemark peasants snow-shoeing, and I recognised
at a glance that I wasn't to be mentioned in the same breath
with them. They used no staff; they simply went ahead
and made the leap without trusting to anything but the
strength of their muscles and the firm, lithe carriage of their
bodies. I saw that this was the only proper way. Until I
had mastered it, I wouldn't have any prize.'

A certain direct way of looking at things was character-
istic of Fridtiof jSTansen from his earliest childhood. He
never insisted on trifles — never sulked or bore ill-will.
What was past was past — blown to the winds. In this
connection it is interesting to read what the faithful friend
of his childhood relates of the origin of their friendship.

Fridtiof was already quite at home at the school when
Karl, his future comrade, arrived. They were both in the
second form in the lower school. Fridtiof was the strongest
of the bo3^s, and lorded it over them all; but Karl was
strong as w^ell. They eyed each other askance, these two,
and each kept to his own domain. One day, however,
during the recess, Karl began throwing a ball at the other
boys, each in turn. ' You mustn't do that,' said Fridtiof
peremptorily. ' Oh, mayn't I ? ' returned the other, aimed
at Fridtiof, and hit him.

A battle royal ensued ; the fur flew and the blood
spurted, until Aars, the head master, arrived on the scene,
seized the two small fighting-cocks by the wings and put
them in the empty class-room. ' Now just sit there, you
two,' he said, ' and look at each other, and be ashamed of
yourselves.'

It was a hazardous experiment — but it succeeded.
They did look at each other ; the second part of the
master's injunction they neglected, but they began to talk.

CHILDIIOOU 29

By tlie time Aars came back, they were sitting with their
arms round each other's shoulders, reading out of the same
book. From that day forward they were inseparable.

There was always war with the Balkeby^ boys when
the two Nansen brothers were on their way home from
school. Fridtiof, indeed, was peaceably disposed and never
precipitate ; but when the moment came, he went in with a
thorough contempt for consequences. The youth of Balkeby
was not very particular in its choice of weapons. One of
the brothers was once hit on the back of the head with a
stone fastened to a leather strap. When Fridtiof saw the
blood he was furious, set upon them, and put the whole
band to rout.

Even in early childhood his thoughts were more to him
than his dinner ; and when he was absorbed in anything
he was oblivious to his surroundings. One day when the
family were all at table, one of the children cried out, ' Why,
Fridtiof, that egg of yours is all green ! ' And so it was ;
but he was quite unconscious of the fact.

His upbringing was Spartan. The children were made
to take turns in waiting at table. Even when they were
quite big boys, their monthly allowance of pocket money
did not exceed sixpence apiece, and of that they had to
render a strict account. But these Spartan measures struck
a responsive chord in Fridtiof's own character. He was not
more than seven or eight when he and his brother were for
the first time allowed to go to the fair by themselves.

In those days Christiania Fair still presented a variety

^ A suburb through which the boys had to pass.

30 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

of attractions to the unsophisticated. There were jugglers'
booths and clowns, not to speak of toys, and whole stacks
of gingerbread cakes. The fair was the children's promised
land, and one of the greatest festivals in the year. Once,
when a Christiania clergyman asked a candidate for con-
firmation what were the feast days of the ecclesiastical year,
the boy could think of none but Christmas and ' Fair-day.'

On this occasion, Fridtiof and his brother were com-
paratively generouslj^ supplied with funds ; they had re-
ceived sixpence each from father and mother, a shilling
from grandmother, and one from aunt. But all the fun of
the fair, the theatres, the toy booths and the mountains of
gingerbread, they passed by with ascetic resolution.

On their return home it was found that they had laid out
all their money in tools. This made such an impression that
each of the home authorities came down with a fresh grant
to the original amount. Back they trudged all the way to
Young's Market Place in order to supplement the outfit of
tools. Wlien, on their way home, they passed the baker's
at Hegdehaugen, they had only twopence left, and this was
invested in coarse rye cakes. It must be admitted that no
Christiania boy, at fair-time, has ever come nearer the
Spartan ideal.

He was a terrible one for falling into brown studies.
Between putting on the first and the second stocking of a
morning, there was always a prolonged interval. Then his
brothers and sisters would call out, ' There's the duffer at
it again ! You'll never come to any good, you're such a
dawdler.'

He was always bent on getting to the bottom of every-
thing. He asked so many questions, says one of his older
friends, that it made one absolutely ill. ' Many a time have

CHILDHOOD 31

I oiven him a tliunderino- scoldino- for this everlastinof " Why ?
— Why ? — Why ? " ' The arrival of a sewing machine at
Froen naturally aroused the demon of curiosit}^ in all his
virulence. He must find out what kind of animal this was.
So he took it all to pieces, and when his mother came back
from town, the machine was the most disjointed -puzzle

NANSEN AS A YOUTH

imaginable. If tradition is to be trusted, however, he did
not give in until he had put it all together again.

As a schoolboy, Fridtiof Nansen was industrious, and
passed out of the intermediate school in 1877 with dis-
tinction. In the upper school, it is possible that sport and
a thousand and one private preoccupations absorbed too
much of his time. In an}^ case, we find a heartfelt sigh going

o2 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAXSEN

up from the half-yearly report of his masters, Aars and Yoss,
in 1879 : ' He is unstable, and in several subjects his progress
is not nearly so satisfactory as might have been expected.'
It is true that their expectations were probably rather high
in the case of a boy who astonished his teacher of mathe-
matics by giving a geometrical solution of a problem in
arithmetic.

The fact was that Fridtiof Nansen had many other pro-
blems to solve besides those set him at school. The ques-
tioning spirit of early childhood grew apace in this period of
active development, and took decided and ever new forms.
There was scarcely a thing in heaven or earth that he did
not probe into. And as soon as he had got to the bottom of
it, he whistled all thought of it to the winds and attacked
a fresh problem.

In the natural sciences, which were his favourite study,
he had of course to experiment. When they were about four-
teen or fifteen, he and his young companion, who after that
first ' explosion ' had become his intimate friend, had some-
how got hold of a box of pyrotechnic materials and a mortar,
the latter lent to them on condition that they should be
exceedingly careful with it. By way of carrying out this
injunction, they one evening filled it full of a great variety
of fluid substances, the properties of which they had yet to
ascertain by experiment. A spark fell into the mixture, and
the flames rose to the ceiling of the little attic room in the
wooden villa where Karl lived. The youthfid investigators
took resolute hold of the mortar and tipped it out of the
window, smashing it into a hundred pieces. Thus they ful-
filled to the letter the recommendation of extreme care.
While the sulphur was still running down the outer wall,
where it left a mark for many a year as a memento of the

CHILDHOOD 33

adventure, tlie boys threw themselves down flat on the floor
and blackened their faces, so that Fridtiof's brother Alex-
ander, on coming in, should think they had been killed by
the explosion.

Like all half-grown boys, Fridtiof had his tender, inflam-
mable moods, and many a moonlit evening has he wandered
outside the windows of the chosen one of the moment. But
it probably never got as far as a declaration. Indeed there
would have been difficulties in the way, for he and Karl often
had the same flame, and sighed in the same moonbeams before
the same window. Besides, he was as bashful as he was
vulnerable. On the other hand, we have historical testi-
mony to his chivalry.

One night — ^he was then about fourteen — ^he and his
brother were coming from a children's ball down in the town.
In the suburb of Homansby they passed a lady and her maid.
A little farther up the street three ' gentlemen' were standing.
Just as the boys passed, they heard one of the men exclaim,
' That's the girl for me ! ' and all three made towards the two
women. ' We must stand by them ! ' said Fridtiof; and the
two boys set upon the three grown men and made a fight of it.
Fridtiof got one of the roughs up against a fence, planted one
fist in the breast of his antagonist, and with the other hand
tore open his own overcoat. ' Don't you know who I am ? '
he cried, and pointed to the cotillion favours sparkling in
the moonlight. The ruse succeeded. The two boys were
left in possession of the field, and the damsels in distress
were rescued. But truth before everything : the lady's name
was not Eva, nee Sars, now Mrs. Nansen, and the brother did
not marry the maid. This is what happens in novels, but
not in Homansby.

34 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NAN SEX

Fridtiof JSfansen sent his first drawings to Copenhagen
when he was three 3^ears old. They have probably not been
preserved. But his first attempt at literary composition is
extant, in the shape of a letter to his parents who were
travelling abroad in 1870. His independence of spirit shows
itself here particularly in the spelling, in which, for that
matter, his achievements were apt to be original and surpris-
ing for many years to come. ' I should very much like to
have some postage-stamps from Eome, some unused ones ;
oh ! never mind either, it doesn't matter whether they are used
or not ; but I would rather have unused ones, because of
course I should get more for them if I might sell them, but

then you said I mustn't sell postage stamps but ^p paste
them in a book. I^ow you needn't bother about that blot,
for there's no word underneath it ; the next word comes after
it, just as if it weren't there.'

With a certain humour, he jests about the torture it has
cost him to write his letter. It ends as follows : ' And now
this story's over, and I shall have very little to tell in another
letter, but now it's over for the present ; for now I have
nothing more to tell you, my dear father and mother. How
have you got on during all the long journey you are taking,
and how far have you got by this time ?— for I don't re-
member where you are. To-day is Sunday, and do you
know how long I have been at this letter ? Ever since
Thursday, and up to to-day Sunday, the 27th of March ;
and this letter is almost every word wrong, so please ex-
cuse it being so badly written and having so many blots,
and this scrap belongs to the letter because I hadn't
room.'

A picture which shows Fridtiof Nansen's childhood and
' Spartan ' home life in a quite new and significant light, is

CHILDHOOD 35

drawn by himself in a letter to liis father, dated December
20, 1883.

' My dear old Father, — So the first Christmas is drawing
near that I shall have spent away from home, that happy
glorious Christmas-time which seemed to our childish minds
the acme of all the joys of earth, and the model for all we
could imagine of the beatitude of heaven. In the eyes
of the youth the picture is still bathed in a rosy radiance,
though its outlines may be slightly altered, perhaps more
matured. . .

' My thoughts fly silently homewards on soft, melancholy
wings, to greet all the bright and peaceful Christmas
memories, bathed in that magic glamour which ever sur-
rounds an unspeakably dear and happy home, where so
many merry Christmas-tides have been celebrated.

' How peaceful and impressive it always was ! How softly
and silently, how pure and white, Christmas snowed itself in !
The great soft flakes fluttered gently down, shedding a kind
of seriousness over the childish soul, even while it leaped and
bounded in irrepressible glee.

' At length the great day dawned — Christmas Eve. Now
our impatience reached its height. We couldn't stay quietly
in one place, or sit still on our chairs for a single moment.
We had to be up and doing something to pass the time — to
distract our thoughts. We would peep through every avail-
able keyhole, or sample the great bags of raisins, almonds
and figs, before they were taken into the bedroom where
the Christmas-tree was ; or we would be off tobogganing ;
or if there was enough snow, we would go snow- shoeing till
dark. Sometimes, by great good luck, it would happen that
Einar or some one else had to make one last rush into town
to do an errand or two before the candles were lighted ; and

B 2

36 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

then Avliat joy to sit beliind in the sleigh while it sped into
Christiania and back again over the smooth hard roads, the
bells ringing merrily, while the stars sparkled in the dusky
heavens !

' At last the great moment came — father went in to light
up, our hearts leaping and thumping the while. Ida would sit
in the armchair in the corner and guess what she would get
from this person and from that ; others smiled in advance
over some surprise they knew all about already ; and then
all of a sudden the door would open and all the Christmas
lights would be shining before our dazzled eyes. Ah, what
a sight ! We gasped with sheer joy, we were quite dumb
and couldn't say a word for the first few minutes, only to
break out presently into all the wilder transports.

' Indeed, indeed, I shall never forget those Christmas
Eves as long as I live.'

This letter is a not unimportant document. It shows
that child life at Great Froen was no whit more Spartan than
Fridtiof Nansen needed for the sake of his development and
of his future. It is true he was kept under rigid discipline
until he attained manhood, but no violence was ever done to
the child in him, and the training which made him hardy
in no sense involved the hardening of his finer qualities.
Two quite different sides of his nature, the gentle, childlike
disposition and the indomitable will, were allowed to grow
freely from his earliest youth ; and as time went on, they
developed side by side into a personality curiously unlike
that of so many famous discoverers and pioneers, whose
nature has become so indurated and so callous that the
whole man seems little more than a kind of locomotive, with
just enough warmth in it to serve the mechanical purpose of
propulsion.

T^ORDMAEKEN 37

CHAPTER III

NOEDMAEKEN ^

If, weary of the soft grace of the Christiania Valley, one
turns and gazes northward from the tower on Tryvand
Height,^ one is confronted, as far as eye can see, with blue-
black forests — forests and nothing but forests, ridge behind
ridge, on and on to the farthest verge of the horizon.

This is ISTordmarken, an unbroken stretch of Norwegian
woodland, many square miles in extent, a lonelj^ world of
narrow valleys, abrupt heights, secluded glassy lakes, and
foaming rivers.

Into this solitude no murmur from the busy capital
ever penetrates, not even the sound of a panting engine or
the warning whistle of a steamboat cautiously threading the
intricacies of the fjord in the dense sea-fog.

Nor does the dirty town-fog of Christiania extend so far
as this. However thick and heavy it may lie over the
town, it has to yield before the fresh, cold airs from this
wintry-white wood-world, and breaks like a grimy sea
against the lower slopes. The fog of Nordmarken — for it
has a fog of its own — is pure and full of moisture. There
is a heavy rainfall in the hills, and deep snowdrifts linger
hidden among the pines, when the last patch of snow lias
vanished from the unwooded levels around.

^ The description of Nordmarken is by Theodor Caspari.
^ Close to Frogner Saeter, about six miles from Christiania.

38 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

At the entrance to Nordmarken, the sedate grey country
roads all come to an abrupt end.

Multitudes of easy-going, irresponsible wood-paths rival
each other in offering themselves as guides. As gaily as if
it were a game, with doublings and turnings, up hill and
down dale, the path sets off through the thick of the wood.
But have a care ! The fellow is not to be trusted. All of a
sudden he will divide into two or three equally trustworthy
or untrustworthy tracks, and leave you without the slightest
indication of which way you should go. Or else the path
narrows little by little, and sneaks on in the shape of a
wretched cow track. Or he stops dead at a bog and won't
stir a step further.

Nordmarken abounds in such surprises, and it would
be no easy matter to find a guide capable of leading the
way unerringly through the vast area of the forest laby-
rinth.

At the frontier of Nordmarken the comforts of civilisa-
tion instantaneously stop short. When you have said good-
bye to the great hotels on the slopes of the Frogner Sseter,
and plunged into these interminable forests, you may
wander for days without coming across anything remotely
resembling an hotel.

At longer or shorter intervals — seldom shorter, however,
than four or five miles — little red-painted forest homesteads
crop up beside the quiet lakes, which as yet have never
heard the whistle of the steam-pipe.

If you have come upon the lake on the opposite side
from such a homestead, and wish to escape the tramp round
to it, your plan is to light a fire by way of signal for a boat.

Tramping and rowing are practically the only means of
locomotion in this district; riding, indeed, is not impossible,

NORDMARKEN 39

but as a horse prevents the traveller from availing himself
of the lake ferries, it is of doubtful assistance.

In this very inaccessibility lies the secret of the attraction

NANSEN AS A STUDENT

exercised by Nordmarken. It may be expressed in the
single word, forest-solitude.

Here, only a few miles from the restless bustle of the
great city, one is suddenly set down, with no apparent

40 LIFE OF FRIUTIOF NAXSEN

transition, in the heart of Nature's deepest seclusion. Here
— only a few miles from the electric tramways and the hum
of cafe life — one may come at any moment upon the Great
Pan. One feels, in the midst of the vast silence of the
forest, that there are discoveries to be made on every side.

Here — close to a town of 180,000 inhabitants — one
comes without warning upon

Tarns and hidden fountains

Where the great elk conies to drink,

while the music of the sono^-birds lures one further and
further into the woods. Here one finds oneself in regions
where the bodies of the dead have at some seasons to be
conveyed to the confines of civilisation on the backs of men,
or packed on horses, before they can be coffined.

Yes, here all is peaceful and still — breathlessly still
— when summer spreads her light veil over the glassy
lakes and dark green leas, when the black-grouse drowses
in the heather, and even the thrush in the pine-tops hushes
his song.

There is breathless stillness, too, of a clear autumn
evening when the birch sees its yellow silk, and the aspen
its gorgeous scarlet, reflected in the black mirror of the
lake, framed in the delicate pale red of the heather.

Again there is breathless stillness — perhaps even more
complete — during the long night of winter, when the stars
glitter over the snow-laden forest and the white-frozen
surface of the lake, and no sound is heard save the soft
trickle of the ice-bound river.

But there are times when this silence is broken.
Shouting and laughter are heard on every lea, and all the
forest farms are occupied. Bands of snow-shoers and sport-
loving young people of all sorts have come up overnight,

NOEDMARKEN 41

to enjoy the freedom and. fill their lungs with pure air
during their short holiday. '

In the shooting and fishing season it is no longer the
Great Pan who reigns. Fishing-rods by the score hang over
the river like a bending wood, and the guns of the city
sportsmen keep up a continual popping and banging in a
spirit of noisy competition. Even the boundless abundance
of fish and game is thus on the decline. Waterworks have
interfered with the spawning, dam after dam bars the fishes'
way up stream, and the river bed lies dry for weeks together.
It was not so twenty years ago, in Fridtiof JSTansen's
boyhood. He was among the few, the pioneers, the elect.
That Eobinson Crusoe existence which less favoured boys
must be content to live in imagination was vouchsafed to
him in its glorious reality. Of his first expedition to the
borders of that Promised Land he has himself written as
follows : ^

' I showed no great intrepidity on my first voyage of
discover}'-, although it went no farther than to Sorkedal.

' I was somewhere about ten or eleven at the time,
and up in Sorkedal lived several boys who were friends
of mine, and who had asked my brothers and myself to come
and see them. One afternoon in June, as we were sitting
out on the steps, it came over us all of a sudden that we
really ought to act upon this invitation. We had a notion
that we ought to ask our parents' leave, and an equally clear
notion that we shouldn't get it if we did. Father and
mother were taking a siesta ; we dared not disturb them,
and if we waited till they awakened it would be too late
to go. So we took French leave and slipped off. The first
part of the way was familiar to us. We knew where

^ In Nordahl Rolfsen's Children's Christmas Tree.

42 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Engeland lay, and made our way to Bogstad without mucli
hesitation. After that we were rather at sea ; but we asked
our way from point to point, first to the Sorkedal church,
and after that to the farm where the boys hved. By
the time we got there it was seven o'clock in the evening.
Then we had to play with our friends and go and see the
barn, and afterwards to do a little fishing. But it wasn't
any real fun. Our consciences were so bad that we had
no peace for so much as half an hour. Then the time
came for us to go home, and our hearts sank so dreadfully
that the way back seemed ever so much wearier than the
way out. The youngest soon became footsore, and it was
a melancholy procession that slowly dragged itself towards
Froen farm at eleven o'clock that night. We saw from a
long way ofi" that people were afoot ; no doubt they had
been searching for us. We felt anything but fearless. As
we turned the corner, mother came towards us. " Is that
you, boys ? " " Now we're in for it ! " we thought. " Where
have you been ? " mother asked.

' Well, we had been to Sorkedal. JSTow for it ! But
mother only said in an odd way : " You are strange boys ! "
And she had tears in her eyes.

' Fancy, not the least bit of a scolding ! Fancy getting
to bed with our blistered feet, and without the least bit of
a scolding !

' And the most extraordinary part of it was that a few
days later we were allowed to go again to Sorkedal.
Could it be that father and mother had come to think
that they had been a little too strict with us ?

' We had another acquaintance, too, in Sorkedal. His
name was Ola Knub, and his wife used to sell us berries.
We got leave to go and see Ola Knub, and fish with him

NORDMAEKEN 4o

in Nordmarken. Great was the rejoicing as we started
off with coffee-kettle and fishing-rods to have a taste of
backwood life up there in the forest. I shall never forget
those days. I can see the wooden hut before me now,
on the shore of the Langii Lake, with the .long sweep of
talus behind it, and the great monkshoods growing round
the hut. There was freedom up there, and we could be
wild-men-of-the-woods to our heart's content. No father
or mother to tell us when it was bedtime or to call us in
to meals. We followed our own devices in everything.
The night was light and long, and sleep was brief.

' At midnight or thereabouts we crept into the hut and
lay down for a couple of hours on the juniper branches ; and
long before the peep of day we were down at the pool catch-
ing trout. We waded in the river, we jumped from stone
to stone. I well remember one time when I was jumping
after Ola Knub from one stone to another. There was scant
room for one, let alone two, on these stones. Presently I
managed to get too close upon his heels. Ola was standing
on the stone I aimed at, and I had no time to find another
footing. Before I knew where I was, I found myself lying in
the river with a stone under my neck, and one under my
knees, and with the water foaming over me.

' While I was in my teens, I used to pass weeks at a time
alone in the forest. I disliked having any equipment for
my expeditions. I managed with a crust of bread and
broiled my fish on the embers. I loved to live like Eobinson
Crusoe up there in the wilderness.'

But frequently Nansen w^as accompanied by his brother
and an older member of the family, who happened to be an
enthusiastic huntsman and fisherman. And in this way,
from the age of twelve upwards, the boys trained themselves

44 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAN SEN

to bear those fatigues wliicli are the best thing in the world for
hardening the muscles. The tramp became longer and
longer, they pushed on farther and farther afield, as they
grew older ; first to Sorkedal — then to Langli Eiver — then
Svarten (the Black Lake) — Sandungen — Katnosa.

' When the oak leaf is like a mouse's ear the trout will
jump for the fly ' — they abode conscientiously by that say-
ing. When the timber-floatirjg was over — -say two days after
— then was the best fishing. While the ' floating ' is going
on there is too much food in the water ; the flood washes
earth away, and in the earth are worms. But by the time
the river has quieted down, and the fish are hungry once
more, then they rise to the fly. At this time, that is to say
at the end of May, the three young fishermen would set off
from Great Froen as soon as they had swallowed the last
mouthful of their Saturday dinner, carrying in their wallet
some bread and butter, a piece of sausage, and a little coffee.
First came a five hours' tramp — not making for any house
or farm, but straight for the river. Their goal once reached,
not an instant was to be wasted on rest. They did not even
stop to eat, but had out their fishing rods, and cast away as
long as it was light. At the darkest of the night, an hour
or two of rest. For supper, coffee, and fish broiled on the
embers. Then they would creep into a charcoal-hutch for
an hour's nap, or else sleep under a bush. Then to work
again at peep of day. A short rest at noon, and at it once
more — oftentimes up to the waist in the river. There they
would stand till well on in the evening, and then trudge
homewards at night with their shoes full of sand and water.
In the small hours of Monday morning they would reach
home, tired to death, and saying to themselves there was no

NOEDMARKEN 45

sense in making such a toil of pleasure. But when they had
had a good sleep, the fatigue was forgotten, and there lay
the shining trout on the kitchen table. The next Saturday at
three o'clock they would be off again.

The hardship was even greater as the autumn advanced
and the nights turned cold. The tramps, too, became longer,
when the boys grew big enough to take part in the hare-
hunting at Krokskogen. This involved going for long
intervals quite without food, and there would often be
scarcely an hour's rest to be had for the better part of two
days and two nights. They used to get so hungry that when
they happened to descend upon Sandvik railway-station
they cleared the refreshment counter in a twinkling of
everything eatable. The man who was to become the
friend and historian of the Eskimos had early experience
both of fasting and voracity. Their unsavoury domestic
arrangements could not dismay one who himself, during
his nocturnal meals in the forest, had many a time picked
up a stick from the ground and stirred his coffee with it,
and who, in somewhat riper years, was able to devour with
relish the raw and not over-tempting trout on the kitchen
bench.

The woods of Nordmarken offered plenty of long runs
for a snow-shoer who preferred to go his own way. It was
here that a feeling for nature was fostered in him — a sense
of the beauty of winter and summer, and of shifting atmo-
spheric moods which do not as a rule appeal to boys. Here
his tissues were hardened to face the Polar winters, while
he stood in the crackling frost waiting for the hare, and
envying him his warm white fur. It was hereabouts (at
Fyllingen) that he was once hare-hunting with his brother
for thirteen days on end. At the last they had nothing to

46 LIFE OF FRIUTIOF NANSEX

live on but potato cakes, and were half starved, both they
and their dog. Then came killing-day at the farm, and the
brothers consumed black-puddings till they nearly burst.
AVhen the time came to go home, Fridtiof had to shoulder
seven hares, slung by the legs. He slipped, fell forwards,
and all the hares shot out like the rays of a halo round his
head.

There was one thing that used to annoy his snow-shoeing
cronies in those days, and that w^as his total carelessness as
to creature comforts. If he happened to look from the
tower on Tryvand's Height away over to Stubdal, twenty
miles off, a whim would all of a sudden seize him, and no-
thing would serve but he must set off without takino; a
crumb of food with him. He on one occasion descended
upon a farm in Stubdal so ravenously hungry that the
people did not forget his visit for many a day.

Another time he and a party of his friends set off on a
long snow-shoeing expedition, each with his provision wallet
on his back — each one, that is to say, except Fridtiof
Hansen. But when they got to the first resting-place he
unbuttoned his jacket and took out of his breast pocket —
concealed deep within, the lining — several pancakes, which
were as hot after the snow-shoeing as if they had just come
off the pan. He held them up smoking : ' Have a pancake,
any of you fellows ? ' None of them were dainty, but the
pancakes seemed even less so, and they declined with
thanks. ' Well,' he said, ' the more fools you, for let me
tell you there's jam in them ! ' It is in such traits that he
shows his kinship wdth the denizens of the great forests.
He has the recklessness of the hunter and the lumberman,
their daring and headlong spirits. He is a typical east-
country boy. But at the same time there is systematic

NOllDMAHKEN 47

intention in the training to which he subjects himself; his
alert ambition reinforces his delight in unvarnished nature,
and his tendency to set at defiance the customs of civilisa-
tion. 'The least possible' is early his ideal, and he has not
the slightest objection to shocking public opinion in acting
up to his principles. It never occurs to him to doubt that
it is he who is right and the world that is wrong. He
appears to have been one of the first consistent disciples
of Jaeger in Christiania, and later on, in his letters from
Bergen, he boasts that now the wool theory is admitted
on all hands. He quotes in this connection one of his
favourite sayings : ' There was a man in a madhouse in
London, who used to say : " I said the world was crazy,
but the world said that I was crazy, and so they put me
here." '

One thing his friends had to guard against : they must
never say to him that anything was impossible, for that was
inevitably the signal for him to attempt it. His boyish
impetuosity brought him on one occasion to death's door —
to the very verge of one of those leaps which even the
expertest athlete cannot clear.

It was in 1878. On a walking tour with his brother
Alexander, he came to Gjendin in the Jotunheim, and must
needs climb the Svartdal Peak. There was a way round
the back of the mountain which was more or less prac-
ticable, but Fridtiof would have none of that ; he must of
course go straight up the precipitous black face of the hill.
' As we got up towards the peak,' his brother relates, ' there
was a snow-field which we had to cross. Beyond the snow-
field lay the precipice, straight down into the valley. I had
already had several attacks of giddiness, so that Fridtiof
had given me his alpenstock, and was without it when it

48 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

came to crossing the glacier. Instead of going carefully
step by step, as he would do now, he goes at it with a
rush, slips, and begins to slide down. I can see him turn
pale. A few seconds more, and he will lie crushed to
death in the valley. He digs his heels and nails into the
ice, and brings himself to a standstill in the nick of time.
That moment I shall never foro^et. Nor shall I forsfet his
coming down to the tourist chalet and disappearing into
the trousers which the burly secretary of the Tourist Club,
jST. G. Dietrichson, had to lend him, an essential part of his
own having yielded to the friction of the glacier.'

The same year in which Fridtiof Nansen was in the
Jotunheim, he had his first experience of ptarmigan shoot-
ing in the mountains — Norefjeld and thereabouts — and it
was then they went on a tramp so exhausting that one of
his brothers fell asleep far up on the heights, and had to be
hauled along with the greatest difficulty. It was probably
these early hunting expeditions through the forest and over
the mountain plateaux that gave him his taste for the accu-
rate observation of animal life, and thus supplied the initial
impulse towards the line of study which he finally chose.
In the year 1880 he matriculated with sufficient credit to
prove that his distractions during schooltime had not been so
absorbing as to prevent him from settling down to work
when the moment arrived. He got a first class in all natural
science subjects, mathematics and history ; and when, in
December 1881, he went up for his second examination, he
was classed as laudabilis prce ceteris. He appears about this
time to have been in some uncertainty as to his choice of a
career. He was entered as a cadet at the military academy,
but the nomination was cancelled when he finallv resolved to

NORDMARKEN 49

continue his scientific studies. He never contemplated going
into the medical profession, but had at one time an idea of
taking the first part of the medical examination. It ended,
however, in his choosing a special branch. Zoology. As
early as January 1882 he applies to Professor CoUett for
advice. The Professor happens to remember how he himseli
has been urged by Arctic seamen to go with them and prose-
cute his studies during a sealing expedition. This ought to
be the very thing for Nansen. He is an expert sportsman
and a good shot — why should he not go to the Arctic regions
on board a sealing vessel, make his observations, keep a
record, and train himself for descriptive zoological research ?
Hansen came to see him, and he made the suggestion, which
took hold of the young man at once. A week later he again
called on the Professor, having in the meantime spoken to
Captain Krefting of the sealer Viking, and arranged matters
with him. On January 23, Hansen's father telegraphed to
an old friend in Arendal asking him to secure the ship-
owners' sanction. The friend (to whom we are indebted for
this information) was able, when called upon, to declare
that Fridtiof Nansen was a sturdy, strapping fellow, ready
with his hands, and capable of great endurance, so that, to
the best of the witness's belief, he would prove a useful and
desirable member of the expedition. Permission was instantly
wired back, and Nansen, having employed the brief interval
at the University in studying the anatomy of the seal, sailed
from the port of Arendal on board the Viking on Saturday,
March 11.

So easy are the transitions, so clear is the continuity
of events, in the life of this young man, which to the outside
observer seems to consist of one or two isolated exploits.

§0 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XAXSEX

The hare-sliooter of Xordmarken becomes the seal-shooter of
the Polar Sea, passmg from the untrodden forest to the
eternal ice. By gentle degrees, and without any painful
wrench, his lucky star guides him almost imperceptibly
towards the crreat waste from which his name is to rin^ out
over the world.

CHAPTEE lY

IX THE POLAE SEA

Naxsex himself felt that a new chapter in his life was
opening auspiciously when the sun rose above the sea and
the skerries on that morning in March. He lonsfed for the
great ice-fields ; but he reahsed, too, that he was sailing
away from the spring, away from the woods and the green
leas, to a world where there would be hardly so much as a
stone to be seen, and never a tree or a friendly grass-patch.^
For the first time in his life he was to be cut off from the
Norwegian spring : ' he was not to wander in the pine woods
inhahno- the fragrant breezes, and with them great draughts
of courage and energy ; he was not to splash about among
the rocks and islets, and welcome the birds of passage,
bringing with them new life and new hope.'

The first incident of the voyage is the sighting of
a derelict wreck. Then there comes a stiff" gale ; the main-
yard is carried away and the deck is swept by the seas.
In the evenings the phosphorescence plays in the spray like
flame. Day after day he notes in his diary : numbers of
petrels — petrels of every variety. On March IS the ice is
sighted. He has more than once described his first im-
pressions, drawing upon his diary. Shortly before starting
on his Polar expedition, he wrote as follows : - —

^ This chapter is mainly foimded upon Xansen's nnpubhshed diary of his
first Arctic voyage.

- In Nordahl Eolfsen's Beading Bool: for Norwegian National ScJiools.

E 2

52 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF XAXSEX

' The Polar Sea is a thing by itself, unlike everything
else, and above all unhke ^vhat one is apt to imagine. Of
course I had read a good deal about it before I vrent north
the first time, and had conceived it to be a world of
huge ice-mountains, where splendid towers and shimmering
pinnacles soared heavenwards on every side, in every
possible shape and hue, varied by vast unbroken fields of
ice. But I found nothing of all this. What I did find was
flat white floes of drift-ice rocking on the greenish-blue
waves — alternate fog and sunshine, storm and calm.

'As I close my eyes now and think of it, a host of
memories crowd ujDon me ; but one or two are specially
vivid.

' ]\Iost vivid of all, perhaps, is my first view of that world.
It was in the month of March. For seven days and nights
we had sailed northward from Norway. It blew great guns
on the I^ortli Sea, but we had crowded on all sail and
pounded ahead at a spanking rate. We carried away our
mainyard, but that made no difierence. We had to push
on — our business was to catch seals, and we were abeady
later than we ought to have been.

' The first sign that we were approaching the Polar
Sea was the appearance of a green sea-gull or " storm-horse."
Somewhere about the Arctic Circle he came to greet us,
hovering on wide-spread wings over the endless blue wave-
crests. Par out on the ocean, hundreds of miles from any
land, he keeps watch at the entrance to the Polar regions.
Xone can pass in without his escort, he haunts the wake
of every ship. He had been following us a couple of days,
and the sea was beginning to grow greener — we were
approaching Jan Mayen — when, on the evening of the
seventh day, the cry went forth ' Ice ahead ! ' I rushed on

IX THE POLAR SEA

deck and looked out — it was black night all around. But
suddenly something huge and white loomed out through
darkness — it came nearer, it grew bigger and whiter, hke
driven snow against the jet-black sea. It was the first ice-
floe we were passing. Then came others ; they cropped up
far ahead, ghded by with a lapping sound as the sea washed
over them, and were left far behind. They were only

IX THE POIAK SEA. I

scattered outposts. But suddenly I was conscious of a
strange brisrhtening over the northern skv, strono-est on the
very rim of the horizon, but perceptible right up to the
zenith — a mysterious half-light, hke the reflection of a great
conflagration far, far away — indeed, in the world of spirits
it would seem, for the hght was of a ghostly whiteness.
Then, too, I heard a dull roar which filled the air to the
northward, hke surf breaking upon rocks.

54 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

'It was nothing more or less than white masses of
drift-ice ahead of us. The hght was the reflection which it
casts upon the misty or cloudy sky, and the noise came from
the breaking of the sea over the floes, as it hurls them,
crashing, one against the other. On quiet nights it can be
heard far out at sea.

' It was a strange experience to stand gazing into the
night and listening, as we sailed into this new and unknown
world of ice. The roar grew louder and louder, and was
heard now on all sides ; the floes drifted past us more
frequently. From time to time the ship struck upon a floe,
lifting it up on end with a mighty crash, and hurling it aside
from the sturdy bow.'

The next morning finds him in the thick of the ice.
Dazzling white, the new-fallen snow lies over all — not a patch
that is not white. The ice-gulls and the fishing-gulls appear.
Snow-buntings alight merrily on the ice-floes close to the ship,
hop about, stick their bills in the snow, and dart off" again,
as gaily as the sparrows at home flit about the farmyard.

The next day there is a storm : the captain sticks to his
course through the ice ; the storm becomes a hurricane (the
diary conscientiously records ' Wind velocity 6 ') ; the ship
quivers like a leaf and groans in every joint. The entries
of the succeeding days are full of breathless excitement, for
now they ought at any moment to drop across the seals.
Will they lie to the eastward or to the westward this year ?
Everybody agrees that it is a confounded nuisance not to
have been on the spot early enough to find the seals in the
water. They are probably to the westward ; but suppose
they should be to the east and one goes west, or vice versd
— there would be no time to rectify the mistake. It is no
mere question of a hare more or less, or of a passing dis-

IN THE POLAE SEA 55

appointment to the noble ambition of tlie sportsman — great
sums are at stake, to be won or lost, thousands for the
owners, hundreds for the common seal-hunters. They have
no idea where they are, being unable to take proper obser-
vations. Then, in the midst of the direst uneasiness, two
ships are sighted to leeward. They crowd on sail and steam
to make up to them. At last the Viking overhauls one of
them. It is the Vega, which carried Nordenskiold through
the North-East Passage, and is now seal-hunting. It
lies there proudly in the moonlight with its airy rigging.
Fridtiof JSTansen looks with reverence at the famous ship,
while the crew about him put in their word in their own
way. ' That's the vessel, my lad, that's been the long round.'
' There have been grand doings aboard her in her time.'
' I'd have given something to have seen the fun at Naples.'

The captains hold a council that lasts far into the night,
and next day the two ships make the best of their way
northward. The third ship, the Novaia Semlia of Dundee,
follows under sail and steam. They are on the look-out for
the northern bight in the ice, although they are now at N.
latitude 74° 50', and it has scarcely ever been known to be
further north than that. Then they have a storm, and after
that fog. Fresh consultations and growing uncertainty. If
they could manage it, they ought to feel their way westward.
On the evening of the 28tli, five ships are sighted to the south.
Consultation follows consultation when the five ships are
within hail. April 1 comes, and on the 3rd the hunting of
the young seal ought to begin ; there is not much hope now
of their reaching the right spot in time. First and foremost
they must try, if they possibly can, to get out of the ice. A
message is sent to the other ships for men to come and help
to ' spring ' the vessel. Soon a hundred men are assembled

56 LIFE or FRIDTIOF NANSEN

on the deck of the Viking and begin to tramp merrily back-
wards and forwards. It succeeds splendidly. The ship
glides on from one patch of open water to another. Then
it sticks. A couple of revolutions astern, and then on again
at full speed. The assembled crews dash themselves with all
their might against the bulwarks, and the ice has to give
w^ay ; it rears up on end before the bow, is forced aside or
else under the keel, and now the ship glides on again for a
long stretch. The propeller now and again thrashes against
the blocks of ice so that the whole ship trembles, reminding
them of the risk they are running ; but on they go.

By evening they are out of the thick ice and in among
the blue ice and the clear water. There is a full moon, and
the stars are shining. The moonlight is reflected from the
open spaces of water, and occasional white ice-floes lie scat-
tered through the blue ice. The sky to the north-west is
a purplish red, otherwise the horizon is a yellowish white.
This is again the moonlight, reflected from the distant ice-
fields.

But high spirits cannot be said to reign on board the
Viking on the evening of April 2. That night at twelve
o'clock the killing of the young seals ^ would begin for those
who had reached the sealing-grounds. On April 8 a hurri-
cane comes on. The spaces of clear water grow bigger and
bigger, and more and more frequent ; it seems as though a
prison gate were burst open in the clamour of the elements.
The whole mass of ice starts drifting towards the east.
Next day they take the longitude and see, to their con-
sternation, that they are 13^° E. It is unheard of that there

' At the end of March the seals calve, and the taking of the young seals is
the first concern. That done, the sealers go on to Denmark Strait after the
bladder-nose seal, a very large variety, so called because the male has a piece of
skin on its snout which it can blow up like a bladder.

IN THE POLAR SEA 57

should be ice in these longitudes ; the}^ must be in the midst
of the Gulf Stream. Again they fall in with two ships. The
captains reckon and reckon, and make out that now there
are twelve ships in all that have missed the sealing. So,
after all, things look a little brighter. But the days go by
— they sail on and on — would it not be better, perhaps, to
make straight for Greenland, and not waste more time over
the young seals? Three ships sighted to windward, and
later on several more. Fresh councils and consultations.
The upshot of it is that not a single ship has reached the
sealing-grounds, unless, perhaps, the Capella. New courage
— hurrah ! And they settle down to the search again. But
in the midst of all this searching, the aspects of the Polar Sea
imprint themselves more and more deeply upon a young
and impressionable mind, prepared to recognise the beauties
of Nature in all her manifestations. His keen eye penetrates
the monotony of the ice-field and the sea, finding subtle dif-
ferences and rejoicing in them. ' There is a splendid play of
colour in the sky, now the brightness of the gleaming snow,
now the dusk of the sea, now the red glow of the sun, now
yellow when the sunlight mingles with the snowlight. And
then the ice ! Now shading off into green, now more of a blue,
while in the depths of the caves it is almost ultramarine.'
'Most people would be wearied,' we read further in the
diary, ' by the stillness and silence of Nature and the inter-
minable ice-fields. They would feel lonely and helpless, they
would miss the life, the smiling meadows, the grazing cattle,
the smoke curling up from the cottages where the evening
porridge is cooking. Such sights are not to be found here,
where every trace of the work of man is instantly obliterated
like the wake of a ship breaking through ice, which is frozen
over again before five minutes have passed. But he who

58 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

seeks for peace in JSTature, immutability, and freedom, will
here find what he wants.' The same craving which early
in life drove him into the dense forests of Nordmark finds
satisfaction now in the open ice-field. He has been trained
to love solitude, he feels himself at home in it, and finds it
charged with life and meaning.

But to the seal-hunters on board the Viking it becomes
plain at last, after five weeks' searching, that they have
hopelessly lost their first great stake. By April 25 they
begin to find a few young seals lying about on the ice.
The weather is foggy, but not so thick but that they can
see a ship ahead of them, with furled sails ; and presently
several more are descried. They make for the first ; it is
the Cap Nord. Why is this vessel lying here with furled
sails ? Is it loaded, and are they boiling down blubber ?
It seems low in the water. Or is it close to the sealing-
ground and waiting for less sea ? Excitement rises to fever
heat on board the Viking. At last the ships are within hail.
The captain of the Cap Nord shouts : 'Why, where on earth
have you been, Captain Krefting ? ' The question goes like
a stab to every heart. Here they lie, one ship after another
— the Novaia Semlia is loaded to the water's edge unable
even to carry all its take. The Vega is laden, the Cap>ella
is almost laden, the AlbertYi^^ 14,000, the Hekla 10,000 or
12,000, the Cap) Nord itself has 6,000. The sealing-ground
lay four miles AV.JST.W. from where we had stuck fast. We
should have been able to see them had it been clear.

On May 2, a glimpse of Spitzbergen. Secret longing for
the herds of reindeer and the eider haunts. But the course
lies westward. By the 25tli they are off the coast of Ice-
land. The glaciers on the Ej^afialla-jokel glow in the sunset,
and the dark ragged lava peaks of the Vestmanna Islands

IN THE POLAE SEA

stand out wild and threatening against the purple horizon.
Here in Iceland Nansen once more feels solid earth under
his feet for a short time. In a great cave hollowed out
of a lava cliff they find an excellent boat-harbour, where
they land. Black lava everywhere, far as the eye can reach.
They visit the lighthouse-man in his hut. A little way off,
the ground is smoking as it does in a heath fire at home —

IN THE POLAR SEA. II

hot springs, which must of course be investigated. With
slippers on their feet, off they set over the rough lava, get a
whiff of the sulphur, and then back again to the hut. Here
and there is a stunted juniper or a tuft of heather; here and
there a little withered grass ; and with that the sheep must
be content. But the mountain fox carries off the sheep, and
the raven carries off the lambs, and the half-starved golden
plover freezes to death in the cold.

60 LIFE OF FKIDTIOF NANSEN

Off they set to sea again, and the diary tells of repeated
seal-hunting expeditions in the boats ; but the big prize in
the lottery was not for them. On the evening of June 16
they had a regular set-to with the ice, blocks toppling over
close to the ship, others shooting up from the depths with
such a rush that they might well have knocked a hole in
her if they had happened to strike the right spot. Every
time the ship's bows fell into the trough of the sea,
she sustained such shocks that she groaned in every joint
and trembled like a leaf. The crew felt anything but safe.
All went well, however. The last small icebergs were
cleared during the night, and the ship was in open water
again. The next morning at breakfast the captain said :
' I am certain that we shall get some seals to-day. Don't
you remember, steward, how, last time the ice played us
these tricks, we sailed straight into the seals and took over
nine hundred ? '

And the captain was right. In the evening all the ten
boats are lowered. Every one is in the highest spirits,
jests fly about while the shots are cracking ; and this time
it is a downright battle, and a battle that lasts for three days
on end. When seal-hunting is at its height, sleep is not to
be thought of. Meanwhile other ships lie outside and
have to content themselves with looking on — an impene-
trable barrier of ice shuts them off from the hunt. But the
Viking was in dire need of some such haul as this. It was
the one bright spot of the cruise.

At the end of June the ship froze fast off the coast of
East Greenland at 66° 50' N. latitude, and remained drifting
about for a month in the very middle of the best sealing
season. Another lost game for the Viking ; but for Nansen
these were in every respect the most memorable days of the

IN THE POLAR SEA 61

whole expedition. Xow, at last, he could gratify his fondest
ambition and come to close quarters with the Polar bear.
Hitherto he had been as zealous a seal-hunter as any of
them, and had carried on his work as zoologist and observer
with the utmost conscientiousness. To this dav Professor
Mohn's instructions, which he followed to the letter, lie
between the leaves of his diary. He had investigated every
living thing he could lay his hands on, whether in the
air or in the water, and had trained himself to look at
things with the eyes of a man of science. But like the
passionate sportsman he was, he had all the time been
burnino' for an encounter with the four-footed sovereion of
the Arctic Seas ; and here, where they lay drifting helplessly,
it turned out that they had, so to speak, stumbled plump on
the preserves of the Polar bear. Nansen has himself drawn
upon his diary for vivacious descriptions of these bear-
hunts.^ Day after day was filled with the delicious unrest
of the hunter, and he had never a moment's peace. Now
there comes a cry from the crow's-nest in the early evening.
' A bear to leeward ! ' Now he is wakened out of his
beauty-sleep by some one whispering in his ear : ' Look
sharp ! Turn out ! There's a bear close up to the ship's
side.' Now he has to jump up from the dirmer-table (that
is to say, at ten o'clock at night), and again he must stop in
the midst of his deep-sea dredging, at a shout from the
crow's-nest — ' A bear on the lee quarter ! ' Away with the
dredge and out with the gun ; the bear is shot, and Nansen
goes calmly on with his work, which lies a hundred fathoms
down in the sea. He does not get to sleep until four
o'clock, and then only to be dragged up an hour or two.
later : ' Another bear in sight ! ' On July 6 the spirits of

1 NorsTc Idrcetshlad, 1883.

62 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XAXSEN

the crew are at the lowest ebb ; they have made up
their minds that they will never get out of the ice alive,
but will either be crushed between the ice-floes, or else lie
there till they die of starvation. Hansen and the captain
betake themselves to the fo'c'sle to cheer them up. They
promise to keep life in them with bears' flesh ; or, in the
event of the ship being crushed, they could all get on shore
and set up a new colony on the coast of Greenland, where
there was sure to be an abundance of provender ; reindeer,
musk-ox, Polar bear, moss, and other delicacies. But all
the consolation is wasted. Just then, from overhead, rings
the cry, ' Three bears to leeward ! ' It turns out to be
a she-bear with two cubs. They are all three shot ; and for
days the sailors live on bear-steaks and delicious ' hearts.'
They make a bonfire on the ice of the old meat, feeding
it generously with blubber, and keeping it up for several
days. It makes a very good lure. During these days
there are sighted from the crow's-nest about twenty bears
in all. On July 12 Nansen writes in his diary : ' In the
afternoon I went up into the crow's-nest to sketch a bit
of Greenland. First I scanned the ice carefully with the
glass to make sure that there were no bears about, and
then I began my sketch. The men had turned in for a little
rest, and all was quiet on deck ; only " the Balloon," ^ who
had the watch, was pacing up and down. I was buried in
my work and had almost forgotten where I was, when
suddenly I heard " the Balloon " call out : " Wliy, look at
the bear ! " Like lightning I sprang up and peered over
the edge of the crow's-nest ; there, sure enough, stood
a bear just under the bow of the ship. Pencil and sketch-
book were thrown aside — out l^y the backstays and down

' One of the crew.

IX THE POLAE SEA 63

through the rigging I clambered, reached the deck at a
rush, and tore below after rifle and cartridges.' But by
this time the bear had got scared, and both he and his
comrade, who was not far off, shambled away. Xansen,
who was dressed in gymnastic shoes and jersey, ran a race
with them ; but they easily kept the lead. The Viking
signalled him l^ack, and he had to give in. Of course the
captain chaffed him well about the splendid outlook he
kept for bears. 'A nice fellow to have on watch, who
can't see them even when they "re close under the bow ! '

But Xansen had his revenge. On July 14 he went on
his last bear-hunt, and this time he took part in a race
which quite restored his character. The bear was a big
fellow, but he shambled off as the two others did. 'Xow
was the time to put on steam, for it went at a good pace.
We (the captain, one of the sailors, and I) rushed after
it, keeping under cover as much as we could. When you
are in a hurry you are apt to forget caution, and so I forgot
the treacherous edges of the ice, hollowed out by the water
underneath, and stretching in a brittle crust well out over
the pools of open sea. but looking quite strong and sohd
from above. We came to a broad pool which it was
possible, though difficult, to clear at a jump. I rushed at
it, making a good spring to cover the distance; but, as ill
luck would have it, there was just such a hollow edge, which
gave way beneath my feet, and instead of reaching the
other side I plumped straight into the water. Well, it was
rather cold ; but the main thing was to keep my riffe in
order. I pitched it up on to the other side, but the ice was
high; the rifle didn't quite clear it and slipped down a^ain
into the water. I dived and got hold of it. In mv vexa-
tion, I this time flung it well on to the ice-floe, and then

64 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

swam on, to a place where I m3^self could clamber up and
recover the rifle. A hasty examination of lock and barrel,
and then off again. The cartridges, I knew, would be all
right, for they were watertight Eemingtons. In the mean-
time the captain had got a little start of me. Having seen
me fall in, and assured himself that there was no harm done,
he crossed the pool at another point and went ahead.
Luckily I was very lightly clothed that day too, in
gymnastic-shoes and jerse}^ without any jacket, so that I
had not much water to carry ; it ran off almost as quickly
as it had soaked in. Consequently I was not long in
making up for lost time, and when I saw the bear dis-
appearing behind an ice-hummock I made straight for it.
No sooner had I reached the knoll and peered over the crest
of it, than I found myself face to face with the bear. Up
went the rifle to my cheek, but Bruin was quicker than I,
and threw himself over the edge of the ice into the water
■ — the bullet only hit him in the hind-quarters as he dis-
appeared. I sprang over the crest of the knoll and rushed
to the edge of the ice to have a shot at him in the water,
but no bear was to be seen. Where was he ? I caught a
glimpse of something white deep down in the water, and
understood the situation. But the pool was a long one,
and I must make haste to get over to the other side in order
to receive him there. I caught sight of two small floes in
the middle of the open water. It was a long jump, but I
had to try it. I made my leap, and landed all right on one
of the floes. It just bore me, and no more. While I was
unsteadily getting my balance, up shot the bear's head like
lightning close to the floe beyond. He clambered up on the
ice, roaring, and the next moment he would 23robably have
been upon me, l)ut luckily I was beforehand with him,

IN THE POLAR SEA 65

recovered my balance, and lodged a bullet in the middle of
Bruin's breast, so that the fur was blackened by the powder.
He fell back into the water and breathed his last, I had
almost said " in my arms." That was not quite the case ;
but I held him by the ears as he showed signs of sinking —
much to my surprise, since at this s'eason the bears are
generally so fat as to float. The others soon came up and
helped me out of my predicament. We had nothing to
haul the bear up with but my leather belt, and that was
little enough. The belt was passed round his neck, and by
this means we towed him ofl" to an inlet in the ice. Now
there was no more danger of his sinking, and we could take
it easy and warp him up by slow degrees. He was an
unusually big fellow, one of the very biggest we got. His
skin lies under my writing-table, and I can literally say that
" I sit with my foot on my enemy's neck." It was a long
way to the ship, and a good hour passed before any one
came to our assistance. In the meantime we set to work to
cut up the carcase ; but I was presently dismissed from this
part of the business. The captain said I was wet and cold,
and must be so good as to take myself off to the ship.

' Unreasonable as it seemed, I let him have liis way and
turned back. I was accustomed to find him in the right,
and this time, as usual, I had no reason to regret my sub-
mission. As I drew near the ship, I caught sight of three
of the men a good way off on the ice. Only two of them, so
far as I could see, had their rifles. I puzzled my brains as
to where they could be going, and learned when I got on
board, they had gone bear-hunting ; but there was no hope
of my being in time for the fun, as they were abeady within
range. Very well, I thought, I've had enough for one day ;
they're welcome to this one. Then some one happened to

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

remark that there were three bears. That was too much.
I might have let them have one, but out of three, one really
must fall to mj share ; and off I set agam as fast as my
legs could carry me. I was wet already, and a little water
more or less didn't matter ; so I was not under the necessity
of making many detours on account of the pools of open
sea. Soon I made up on them, and saw they were lying in

If'^^fei

IN THE POLAR SEA. Ill

wait for a bear who was coming towards them. I stopped
a short distance off, so as not to spoil sport ; but the others,
probably fearing that I might be beforehand with them,
fired too soon and only wounded the bear, who rushed off
roaring. Now it was my turn. I sent a shot through his
breast and he fell, but got up iigam and began to run. I
tore after him, and when he turned at bay and came towards
me, I sent a bullet through his head that finished him.

IN THE POLAR SEA 67

' Now for the next one. At a signal from the ship we
went in the direction indicated, and presently caught sight
of the bear. He was standing still, devouring the carcase of
a seal, and so absorbed in the occupation that we got within
easy range without being noticed. As I was not sure of
the others, I preferred to shoot from where I was. I whistled
to make the bear look up — but not a bit of it ! I whistled
again, still without effect ; then with all my might — and at
last he raised his head. I aimed behind the shoulder-blade
and blazed away, and simultaneously the two others fired.
The bear roared and staggered backwards into the water. I
sprang forward to the edge of the ice ; but thinking he had
had about enough, I allowed him to swim quietly over to
the other side, intending to give him his quietus when he
had got well up on the ice, so as to save us the trouble of
hauling him up. But this time I had reckoned without my
host, for the bear must needs land by an ice-hummock,
clamber up as lightly as a cat, and, covered by the hum-
mock, go gaily on his way. There I stood with a very long
face, and could only send an ineffectual bullet in his wake.
But then began a race which turned out an ample compen-
sation for the disappointment. Oluf, who had no rifle and
carried nothing but an ice-pick and a rope, accompanied me
a little way, but remained behind at the first bit of open
water which was too wide to jump. I couldn't be bothered
going round, and took to the water. I heard a roar of
laughter behind me. It was Oluf, who had never seen
people getting over the open spaces like that before. He
was for doing it a better way — with the ice-pick he managed
to get a small fioe into the middle of the pool, so that he
could jump on it. He made a leap, but this time it was my
turn to laugh, for he landed neatly on the edge, so that he

i- 2

68 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

found himself in water np to liis waist, and of course got
liis high sea-boots full of water. So now there was a long
emptying process to be gone through, which I, with my
canvas shoes, did not require, and had not the time to wait
for. Thus the bear and I were left alone to try our
streno'th, and we had both of us determined to do our utter-
most. He ran for life, and I for honour ; for it would
have been disgraceful to get so near as that to a bear and
then lose him after all. My bullet had hit him right enough
behind the shoulder-blade ; but by mistake I had got hold
of a cartridge with a hollow ball, and had thus only given
him a surface wound, which did not seem to trouble him very
much. However, the wound bled a good deal, and the track
was not difficult to follow. The bullets of the others had
not hit him. So off we set over the ice as fast as our legs
would carry us ; sometimes I made up on the bear, some-
times he widened the distance between us. In this way we
dashed over one ice-floe after another. If the open pools
were too wide to jump, I simply swam them, for there was
no time to be lost in " going round about." ^ Stretch after
stretch lay behind us, and the bear seemed unwearied ; but
at last he took to doubling, and that enabled me to make
short cuts which helped me a good deal. I now saw he was
beginning to be tired, so I took it easier, until I saw him dis-
appear behind an ice-hummock. Under cover of this I set
off again at the top of my speed, expecting to get a good
shot at him ; but no ! he saw my dodge and renewed his
exertions. He kept up the pace for a little while, and then
slowed down again. Finally, I got within range and sent a
bullet through his breast. He made a couple of plunges
and then fell. A bullet behind the ear finished him off.

^ See Teev Gynt, Act II. sc. 7.

IN THE POLAK SEA 69

' So there I stood alone with a dead bear. A rifle with-
out cartridges and a penknife were my only weapons, for I
had lent the captain my sheath knife to cut up the other
bear. The first thing to be done was to signal to the ship
for help, but I could see nothing of her except the masts.
So I climbed up on the highest ice-hummock I could find
and waved with my cap on the end of my gun-barrel. Then
I began to skin the bear with my penknife, so that I might
at least take his skin back with me. It was a long business,
for the head and paws had to be cut off" to go with the skin ;
however, with care and patience I got on, and had nearly
finished when in the distance I heard a voice. I mounted a
knoll to see who it was, and found it was Oluf, who had at
last caught me up. He was heartily glad to find me, for he
had been running with his heart in his mouth for fear of
meeting the bear ; and no wonder, since his only arms were
an ice-pick and a packet of cartridges. We finished the
skinning and began the rather troublesome task of dragging
the skin home to the ship ; for a fell like this one, with its
layer of blubber weighing perhaps half a hundredweight,
is no light burden. However, we had not gone far before
we met the men who had come to help us. We gladly
handed over to them the skin, the rifle, and Oluf s cartridges ;
for they are very unwilling to be out on the ice without arms,
for fear of coming across bears.

' Oluf and I, feeling we had done our share, left them
and betook ourselves to the ship. On the way back, Oluf
was much taken up with my method of crossing the open
pools, which was something quite new to him ; he could
not get over his annoyance at being left behind with his old
sea-boots. On the way we met an embassage from the cap-
tain with beer and food. I was quite touched by this atten-

70 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

tion, and I can assure you botli Oluf and I enjoyed our
picnic. When I got on board I was told that the third bear
also had been close at hand, but had made off. We ought to
have had him too, so that our whole bag might have been an
even score. As it was, we had only nineteen, and with that
we had to be contented.

' That was our last hunt. A few days afterwards the
ice broke up and we got away. The seal-hunting was over
now, and there was nothing else to do but to steer for
home. Once more the Viking leaped over the crests of
the waves as fast as sail and steam could carry her, and
great was the rejoicing on board when the peaks of dear
old Norway's weather-beaten mountains rose up out of
the sea.'

Nansen concludes with thanks to Captain Krefting for all
the pleasant hours they had spent together in the Arctic
regions. Krefting was the very type of a sturdy, fearless,
and enterprising Arctic skipper. We have little doubt
that this was a case of the meeting of two kindred natures,
and that Krefting's personality influenced and developed
JSTansen's innate gifts. They became fast friends ; and the
crew of the Viking still give the ' Nansen-trip ' the place
of honour amongst all their Arctic expeditions. Companion-
able and courageous, he was liked and respected by every
one ; and there were among them some rough customers
who were none the worse for rubbing shoulders with a
man of education. And then he was such good company
— he would sit in the cabin with them, yarning the whole
night through, and he knew the real name as well as the
nickname of every man on board. To this day, several
of the seal-hunters have hanging on their wall a photograph
of the whole ship's company. There they stand, seventy-two

IN l^HE POLAE SEA 71

men, grouped behind a huge Polar bear, the hunters with
their guns, the others with ice-picks and staves.

' But where is Nansen ? '

'E'ansen? Why, he is standing in front and doing the
photographing, don't you see ? '

It seems as though all these appliances of his in-
troduced a softening touch of civilisation amongst the
wastes of the Polar Sea. He has his hands full ; everything
that he sees, the smallest animal or insect, he insists on
getting hold of. In the sea, alongside the ship, hang his
nets, in which he catches his smaller specimens of marine
life. Did he not catch a young seal and feed it and tend it
for eight whole days ? ' But he couldn't photograph it,'
says the sealer, recalling these days. ' The young seals
aren't accustomed to that sort of thing. No one asks them
if they'd like to be photographed before he knocks them
on the head. Every blessed day Nansen had this one out
and made the attempt. He would pose it so nicely on the
main hatch, and all would go well up to the moment of
taking the cap off the camera ; then it would begin to
flap about, and the picture would be nothing but a blur of
mist.'

Then, too, JSTansen was the most zealous sportsman, and
utterly reckless of life and limb. ' I well remember being
out on the ice one time,' says the same shipmate, ' when
we heard some of the men calling for help. The skipper
and Nansen were on board — the mate was up in the rigging
with the spy-glass. We were so near we could hear him
shouting that some of the boys had got out on an ice-floe
and that a bear was after them. They had no guns with
them. The bear was making for the open water astern
of the ship and evidently meant to swim across. I rushed

72 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

oiF on the instant as hard as I could pelt. Nansen and
the captain did the same — but they were a little behind.
When I got within sight of the bear he was scarcely two
bounds from the water. It was a long shot, and I was
out of breath with running, but I couldn't wait any longer.
If the bear succeeded in reaching the ice-floe, I wouldn't
dare to shoot for fear of hitting one of my mates.

' When I had fired, I heard JSTansen calling, •' Have you
hit him ? " And when he heard it was all over with the bear
he stopped dead as if he had been shot himself. I believe
he'd rather have had the bear carry off one of the fellows
first, if only he could have had a shot at both of them
afterwards.

' My word, he was a great fellow for bears ! When
there was a race between him and one of them, it was a
case of two chips of the same block ; I^ansen was as much
under water as above it, just like the bear. I told him
often enough that he'd end by ruining his health, going on
like that. But he only pointed to his woollen clothing
— " I'm never cold," he said.'

W^e have Fridtiof Hansen's own word for it that these
weeks off the east coast of Greenland exercised a determining
influence over him. ' By day the peaks and the glaciers
lay glittering beyond the drift ice ; in the evening and at
night, when the sun tinged them with colour and set air
and clouds on fire behind them, their wild beauty was
thrown into even bolder relief.'

He brooded incessantly over plans for reaching that
coast which so many have sought in vain. It must be
possible, he thought, to make your way over the ice,
dragging your Ijoat along with you. He wanted to set off
alone and walk ashore, but permission was refused him.

IN THE POLAR SEA 73

Already lie had begun to entertain notions of penetrating
to the heart of the countr}^ ; and within a year of his return
to Norway, the idea of crossing Greenland on snow-shoes
had taken firm root in his mind. So close is the connection
between the first expedition to Greenland and the second.
That lucky star which never deserts him keeps him drifting
off this coast for twenty-four days and nights, drawing him
nearer and nearer to it ; and while the others are filled with
terror, the radiance of the summer night sets his yearning
soul aglow for the land of adventure. Ambition awakens
and chooses the most strenuous of tasks.

74 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTER V

IN BEEGEN

While Fridtiof jSTansen was swimming across the rifts in the
ice after Polar bears, the Director-in-Chief of the Bergen
Museum, Dr. Danielssen,^ was going his wonted round from
the Lungegaard Hospital to the Museum and from the
Museum to the Lungegaard Hospital, and turning things
over in his mind. He needed a new assistant, Olaf Jensen ^
having resigned his post. Before the bear-hunter had
reached Christiania, Professor Eobert CoUett was applied to
by telegraph for his advice. He thought instantly of Hansen,
and asked him, the moment he set foot on shore, if he would
care to become Curator [Konservator) of the Bergen Museum.
He agreed at once. He was not yet twenty-one, and had
done nothing whatever to make his mark in science ; so it
was certainly a very tempting offer. But he wanted first to
pay a visit to a sister in Denmark ; and this was reported to
Danielssen by wire. We, having known the old Director,
can literally hear him growling as he paces about the
Museum : ' Who ever heard the like ? Has the chance of
becoming Curator of the Bergen Museum before he's well out
of liis teens, and wants to go and visit his sister ! Wlio ever
heard of such sentimentality ? ' He wired back : Nansen

' Born in Bergen July 4, 1815 ; died in Bergen July 13, 1894.
" Born 1847 ; Curator of Bergen Museum 1874 -82. Died 1887.

IN BERGEN 75

must come at once. This was the first characteristic greeting
from a personage under whose eye the young man was
destined to work for several years to come.

Daniel Cornelius Danielssen, the son of a clock-maker,
had begun life as a druggist's apprentice, and was now at the
head of the medical profession — author of epoch-making

DE. DANIELSSEN

works on leprosy, a distinguished zoologist, honorary gradu-
ate of the Universities of Lund and Copenhagen, and one of
the most interesting figures in our scientific and public life.
A thin little man, who had early triumphed over death in the
shape of tuberculosis, he always dragged one foot a little
after the other, on account of an old attack of hip disease.

76 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

yet was always first on the spot at all the hundreds of meet-
ings which he had to take part in or to preside over. His
face of statuesque beauty, which never showed any signs
of sleeplessness or over-study ; his eyes that were always
so brilliant, and, if occasion demanded, so threatening ; his
irresistible gift of persuasion in private talk, his daring
cut-and-thrust style of argument in public debate, which
reminded one a little of a ship hacking its way foot by foot
through the ice — all this combines to form a picture which
cannot fade from the memory. Here was a working capacity
which might be said to know no limits, an untrammelled
energy, an incompressible elasticity ; here was a rare com-
bination of fiery ardour and unflagging perseverance.
Whereas many another fine talent has withered away in a
small town for lack of emulation, and because the atmo-
sphere of every-day life is too enervating to permit of
spiritual growth. Dr. Danielssen, instead of either flying or
surrendering, chose rather to re-create the town in his own
image. Instead of throwing up the sponge on realising his
isolation, he kept the fight going through a long series of
years, and won protection, both in the Storthing and in
the Town Council, for interests, nominally his own, which
were in reality those of society at large. On the spot
where his ashes now rest, he built for himself a monument
where his spirit lives on ; and that monument is the
Bergen Museum.^ As it is to-day, he may be said to have
created it. He it was, and practically he alone, who rescued
it from the condition of a mere collection of curiosities, and
made it an instrument of popular education and an Academy
of Science. This man, who came through all the sorrows of

' See obituary notice by J. Brunchorst, in the Annual Report of the Bergen
Museum for 1893. Bergen, 1894.

IN BERGEN 77

life with renewed vigour, seemed to liave taken for his life-
motto the old saying of the Haavamaal :

Kine die,

Kindred die,

Thj'self thoii slialt die one day.

One thing I know

That never dies :

Men's deeming as to the dead.

And he knew that this ' deeming ' would be founded upon
the work he had left behind him.

Danielssen was a man who remained young to the last.
He loved youth, but he exacted great things of it. ' His idea
was,' writes one who for many years was a fellow-worker of
his and of JSTansen's, ' that a young fellow ought to be able
to cope with any and every thing. He was pleased and cor-
dial when a given task was accomplished, and scolded if it
didn't go as quickly as he thought it ought to. His method
was excellent in the case of a man of many interests, high
intelligence, and great industry. These qualities I^ansen
possessed.'

So far as we know, Dr. Danielssen had no direct influence
on JSTansen's choice of subjects at the Bergen Museum. But
his very personality was an incentive. At ten o'clock every
morning this man of sixty-seven mounted the Museum Hill
and sat himself down to his work-table. Already a portion
of the day's business lay behind him — he had gone his morn-
ing rounds at the Lungegaard Hospital. A young man
entering on his career under Danielssen's auspices, soon
found that although the claims of science were inexorable,
it did not at all exact a life of cloistral seclusion ; for to
this veteran nothing human was alien. He had himself been
a member of the Storthing, and he followed the political
development of the country with the liveliest interest. He

/ 8 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XAXSEX

had taken part in the foundation of the Norwegian Theatre/
the Bergen Art Gallery, and the Bergen Athengeum. He
was chairman of Det nyttige Selskab (literally ' The Useful
Society ' ) ; he had been a member of the Bergen Town
Council for nearl}^ a generation ; and he followed the fortunes
of all these institutions through the daily press. In the midst
of his spirit-jars, specimens, and instruments, he would foam
with rage or sparkle with delight when any of his dearest
interests were attacked or came off victorious.

And when, at home, in his little dining-room in the
Lungegaard Hospital, he would crack a bottle from his well-
stocked cellar, amid a circle of fellow-scientists, artists,
townsmen, and specially, and by preference, young workers
of all kinds, it seemed as if the joy of life, the instinctive
rejoicing in mere existence, was personified in the ardour of
that face, in the sparkle of those eyes, which had, neverthe-
less, seen death take from him all that was dearest to his
heart. His only son, a medical student, died in 1868, at the
age of twenty-five. Soon after (in 1869 and 1873) he lost
his three daughters. His wife died in 1875 ; so that he was
quite alone in the world when Nansen first came to know him.

Once more Xansen had been brought into close relations
with a character eminently fitted to further his development.
Their letters (of which we subjoin two) bear witness to the
relation between them. The first is from Dr. Danielssen to
Nansen, dated January 30,- 1893, that is to say, about six
months before his death.

' My dear Xaxsex, —

' It is crettino' on towards the time when vou are to set

' Doubtless the theatre in Bergen, set on foot by Ole Bull, of which Ibsen and
Biornson were successively directors.

IN BERGEN 79

out on your great expedition. I was uneasy, I confess, as
to the result of your Greenland venture ; as to the issue of
your Polar voyage I am entirely at ease. I have followed
your exposition of the scheme with the liveliest interest, and.
I have sufficiently acquainted myself with the arguments
which have on all sides been urged against you, to have
arrived at a settled conviction that your undertaking will
succeed. It is likely enough, my dear Nansen, that I may
not live to join in the shout of welcome which will ring
through the country when Fridtiof Nansen comes back
with his comrades from the North Pole, rich in discoveries
in every department of science. Therefore, I will take time
by the forelock and bid you a most affectionate welcome
home — a welcome which, next to Eva's [Mrs. Nansen's], will
be the sincerest and the warmest of all that will greet you.
If I understand aright, your route will lie through the Kara
Sea to the New Siberia Islands. In this case, I presume
you will look in at Bergen in passing, and I need not say
that your visit will be a great pleasure to all of us, and not
least to your old friend and admirer.

'Fridtiof Nansen will come back successful from the
North Pole as surely as I am writing these lines — so much I
dare to prophesy. Eemember me kindly to your dear wife
and to the Sarses ; -" and for yourself, dear Nansen, accept a
warm kiss and embrace from your sincerely affectionate

D. C. Dakielssen.'

Shortly before leaving Norway, in 1893, Nansen sent
him, from KioUefiord, on July 16, a greeting which ends as
follows : —

' Deae Danielssen, — Much that I have to say to you 1

1 Mrs. Nansen's family.

80 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

will leave unsaid, and only tliank you once more for all that
you have been to me, dear fatherly friend. Fate has
sundered our ways, and debarred us from working together.
. . . But whether at your side or far away, you have my
undivided affection and my undivided admiration. You
are now in the evening of life, but it is a beautiful evening,
and the day's work you have to look back upon is long and
noble. I am as yet at life's high noon, and have, I hope,
still something left to do in the world ; but you will always
stand before my eyes as a shining example. If I should
grow weary or slack, the thought of your strength of will
and your untiring activity will spur me on as it spurs on
many and many another. A thousand good-byes until we

meet again.

' Yours affectionate and faithful,

' Feidtiof Nansen.'

Few things are more characteristic of Nansen than the
way in which he passed from Polar bear-hunting to the
work-room of the Bergen Museum. ' I have become an
absolute first-class stick-in-the-mud,' he says in a letter to
his father as early as October 17, 1882, ' and have really no
right to my nickname of Esau.' ^ He, the athlete and sports-
man 79ar excellence, has to 'reassure' his father by informing
him that he is a member of two gymnastic societies ! He
throws himself into his scientific work as passionately as if
it were the most thrilling of adventures. He pursues the
paltriest insect revealed by the microscope, no less impetu-
ously than he pursued the bears over the Arctic wastes.
At Christmas, on his way home to Christiania, he blows

^ Given him by the family of Pastor Holdt, with Avhom he lived. Here he
foimd a second home of -which, in his letters, he speaks with the utmost
warmth.

IN BERGEN 81

away the cobwebs by crossing the mountains in a piping
snowstorm — the whole upland reeking with snow-swirls, so
that even his dog whines and trembles under the lashing of
the wind. But in January we find him nailed to his post
beside the new 35/. microscope with which his father has
presented him — the father who is so frugal an economist,
but who seems to set no bounds to his liberality when his
son's future is at stake. He peers and peers into his micro-
scope, and ' the world might tumble to pieces without his
noticing it.' Now and again, when he feels he needs
freshening up, he sets ofi" for a walk in the mountains,
enjoying the sunset by the sea, and making a great glissade
from the mountain-top right into the valley, without even
snow-shoes, ' going it as though king and country were at
stake, with Flink [his dog] scampering after him so fast
that he hasn't even time for a single bark.' On the whole,
however, these rain-swept mountains of the west coast
cannot have been much to his taste. ' One day we have a
cold snap with snow, and all the mountains, in full winter
dress, lie gleaming in brilliant sunshine ; the next day they
are brown and black again, frowning in mist and rain.
Then, on the heels of this, come sunshine and clear skies,
and the mountains are smiling once more as though in the
loveliest spring weather. Now a warm southerly gale has
come on — last night it blew a regular hurricane ; the fields
are quite brown, and there is no snow to be seen except
a speck here and there on the very crests of the range.'
But it needs more than the lack of his accustomed winter
sports to depress a happy nature such as his, early devoted
to the principle that in order to attain the essential it is
often necessary to dispense entirely with the non-essential.

82 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XAXSEN

' His eyes are fixed on tlie future ; he is still on tlie
tkreshold of life.'

' Ungdomsmod,
imgdortisiiiod,
gaar som rovfugl i det blaa,
det maa jage, det raaa slaa,
det maa alle varder naa.'^

His cry is ' Forwards ! '

Ear more imperative longings come knocking at his study
door without his yielding to them. It was on an autumn
evening of that same year that the project of the journey
to Greenland took root in his mind. ' I was sittino- and
listening indifferently,' he says,- ' as the day's paper was
being read. Suddenly my attention was roused by a tele-
gram stating' that Nordenskiold had come back safe from
his expedition to the interior of Greenland, and that he
had found no oasis but only endless snowfields, on which
his Lapps were said to have covered, on their snow-shoes,
an extraordinary distance in an astonishingly short time.
The idea instantly flashed upon me of an expedition crossing
Greenland on snow-shoes from coast to coast. Here was
the plan in the same form in which it was afterwards laid
before the public and eventually carried out.'

Four years and a half elapsed before the scheme was
put into execution. He writes to his father on October 4,
1883, very soon after the news about Nordenskiold came to
his ears : ^ ' I feel a sneaking longing to break loose every
time I hear of such adventures ^ — a lonoino- for further ex-

' ' Youthful courage sweeps like a bird of prej^ through the blue ; it must
chase and strike its prey ; it must soar to the loftiest beacons.' — Biornson.

* The First Crossing of Greenland, p. 2.

* Nordenskiold arrived at Thurso on September 20, and at Gothenburg
September 27.

* Alluding to a shooting expedition of his brother's.

IN BEEGEN 83

periences, for travel — and such thoughts bring a restless-
ness which is oftentimes hard to subdue, and troubles me a
good deal before it finally calms down. However, the best
remedy for it is work, and I apply it, as a rule, with good
results.'

About this time, too, another call reached him from
the outer world. An English zoologist, who had visited
the Museum in the summer and seen a good deal of ISTansen,
inquired if he would like to accept a post in America.
Professor Marsh, the celebrated palseontologist, one of the
most eminent men of science in America, had expressed his
intention of recruiting his staff of young investigators, and
the Englishman had thereupon s^Doken of ISTansen as one
whom he believed to be specially fitted for such work. ,
ISTansen answered that he must have certain assurances from
Marsh before he could enter into negotiations. ' What I
want specially to stipulate for, and to have quite clearly
understood, is that I shall have sufficient time for inde-
pendent work and stud}^' The provisional inquiry was
made in October 1883. From Marsh himself nothing had
been heard when ISTansen wrote as above to his father on
December 28, and no further mention of the affair occurs
in their correspondence. There must, however, have been
something attractive in the idea. He would have had a
chance of seeing the world, and probably of making yearly
excursions to the Eocky Mountains and the West. But it
was not easy to leave the Museum. ' I have much to do
here that I want to get finished and out of hand.' This,
no doubt, was what kept Greenland also in the back-
ground of his fermenting mind. ISTansen was in reality
far too clear-headed not to know that the Greenland scheme

G 2

84 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

was a matter of life and death. ^ He wanted to sliow the
world that it was no insignificant life that was to be staked
upon it ; he wanted to leave behind a sufficient record of
scientific work, before taking the leap into the unknown ;
and he probably hesitated, too, at the thought of inflicting
on his old father so great an anxiety. The correspondence
between these two, from the autumn of 1882 to March 1885,
is characteristic in the highest degree. It is the busy
beginning of the day for the young man, for the old one it
is almost the end,^

The mere sight of the Bergen postmark is a consolation
to the father in his loneliness. The son begins evevj second
letter with an apology for not having written. But these
letters of his, though often empty to the point of childish-
ness (all letter-writing being a task and a drudgery to him),
will sometimes, all of a sudden, become strangely warm and
expansive, when, in the press of work, he has time to
bethink himself. Then he sends his father books, and
discusses literature with him. It is quite touching to find
the father writing, a couple of months before his death : ' I
have not been able to enjoy Pasteur to the full, since I have
never read a word of chemistry, and have therefore had to
apply for aid to a dictionary of foreign terms, and an
encyclopaedia. I trust that when you come home again you
will give me a little course of chemistry, to enable me to
read this book with more understanding. In the meantime,
it pleases me to see such an indomitable man of science
constantly working towards a goal which, from all indica-

' His brother wrote to him, when the preliminaries of the expedition were
being arranged, expressing a wish to join it. He received no answer to this
letter ; but to others Fridtiof remarked, ' There's no good risking more than
one of the two Nansens that are left.'

^ The father died April 2, 18B5, while his son was on his way to him.

IN BERGEN 85

tions, lie conceives to be tlie right one, and thereby steadily
advancing the boundaries of knowledge. . . . When I get
a letter from you I often shed tears, not of sorrow but of
subdued joy. May God bless your work, and guide it to
happy issues ! '

In the son's letters, artless though they be, thoughts as
well as feelings find ready enough expression when it comes
to the point. One is reminded every now and then of school
compositions, so amazing is their naivete. On one occasion
JSTansen wins at a bazaar a little picture of a waterfall, by
an obscure painter, and thereupon bursts forth : ' Now,
really, isn't it wonderful what good luck some people have
in everything ? How Fortune has smiled on me from every
quarter up to now ! ' But one has only to ask this child's
advice on a matter of importance, or touch upon any ques-
tion concerning his future, and at once the grown man takes
his place, alert and decided, ready with well-considered
argument, and full of healthy self-confidence.

A valuable contribution to our knowledo-e of Fridtiof
Nansen's character at this time reaches us in the shape of
certain observations jotted down by his friend Dr. Lorents
Grieg, who saw a great deal of him in Bergen. ' I admired,'
writes Grieg, ' the consistency with which he always acted
up to his convictions, and his remoteness from any spirit
of compromise. It never occurred to him to take society
and circumstances into account as factors to be considered
and reckoned with. When once an idea took hold of him,
he followed it up unshrinkingly to its ultimate conse-
quences.

' Contradiction was wasted on him ; with kindness you
could get him to do anything. The reason why his intimates
were so devoted to him was that, though he was sometimes

86 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

inconsiderate and stifFnecked enough, at other times one
could not but recognise in him an exceedingly delicate and
affectionate disposition, which, when it happened to come
uppermost, would often express itself in exceptionally
engaging and characteristic ways, showing a nature of real
depth. The child was always strong in him. How often
have I said to myself, ' What a child he is ! ' I remember
how, in the Christmas holidays, we would often sit in the
drawing-room at home with the biscuit-box between us,
fighting for what was left, while we listened to my sister
singing. Then the best and warmest side of his nature
came out, and never was he more lovable. He would sit
listening by the hour, with an expression of the deepest
seriousness, entering with understanding and sympathy into
the tenderest and most pensive sentiments. When the song
ended, he would at once begin fantasticating in the mood
suggested either by the words or the melody, and then
there was no stopping him. Schumann and Schubert, with
their vehemence of passion, interested him ; but he was
never thoroughly satisfied until we got on to our own poets
and composers. It was quite surprising to find such a
capacity for deep and sensitive feeling in this youth, who at
the next moment would show such grit and determination.
What we others at that time of life would blush to say or
quote, for fear of appearing sentimental, he would come out
with frankly and serenely, without the least self-conscious-
ness in voice or manner — in a word, he loved music and
poetry. First he would recite a couple of lines, and then
another couple — simply, and with feeling. "Now he will
stop," I would think ; " he probably doesn't know any more."
But no ! he would go ahead without pause, especially if
he got upon Ibsen's "Paa Vidderne" ("On the Heights "),

IN BEEGEN 87

which he knew from beginning to end, or " Ingeborg's
Lament," or any other passage from " Fridtiof's Saga."
Curiously enough, nothing (that I can recollect) filled him
with more radiant delight than an opportunity of reciting
the dialogue between Fridtiof and Bjorn. He would go into
fits of laughter over this passage : —

Ah ! Fridtiof, tliy folly seems strange to my mind ;
What ! sorrow and sigh for a false woman's love !
In sooth, upon earth there are women enough !
For the one thou hast lost thou a thousand mays't find.
If thou wilt, e'en a loading of that kind of ware
Shall swiftly from Southland so glowing be brought,
As ruddy as rosebuds, like lambs tame and fair ;
We'll divide them as brothers, or share them by lot.^

' Often in reading or recalling this canto, I have seemed
to see Nansen and Sverdrup before my mind's eye.

' Earely,' his friend concludes, ' does one find in a man
of that age so pronounced a love and yearning for what is
good, right, and pure, and rarely, too, such a dauntless
energy in following it up to its remotest consequences.
The search for the right, whether in great things or in
small, was in his case accompanied by constant unrest,
yearning, and struggle ; and to carry it through to the end,
in spite of everything and everybody, was his greatest joy.'

Fridtiof Nansen's idea of paradise at this period is not
that of the Mohammedan, a blessed dolce far niente, sur-
rounded by beautiful women. His literature is En Hanske
(' A Gauntlet ') and Sigurd Slembe.^ His ideal of the world
beyond is founded on the Jotunheim, with its rugged and
ragged peaks, and glaciers on every hand. When this
titanic Nature outlines her noble contours against the deep,

^ E. Tegner, Fridtiofs Saga, translated by the Eev. W. L. Blackley.
^ Both plays by Biornson.

88 LITE OF FEIDTIOF ^'AXSEX

dark skv, it seems to liini like a glimpse of tlie lost
paradise.^

And in kis koliday kours ke tkrows kimself into tke
midst of tkis wild beauty — straigktens kis back after
bending over tke microscope — and attacks tke mountain
fastnesses witk dare-devil oiee.

One evening towards tke end of January 1884 ke is
walking tkrougk tke streets of Bergen in pouring rain and
kowkno- wind, wondering if tke sun is o-oincf to skine ac^ain
tkis side of Easter. He says, like Peer Gynt :
' One must spit and trust to tke force of kabit.'

He looks in at tke post-office and gets kis Idrcetshlad
(' Journal of Atkletics '), comes kome and sits in kis arm-
ckair, intending to glance tkrougk tke paper before going
at kis work again. He reads ' Snow-skoe-Eaces on
Huseby Hill, February 4.' All of a sudden tke pine-forest
rises before kis mind's eye, alluringly wkite, and villages
and meadows, uplands and mountains, ke brigkt and
gleaming in tke sunskine. It is a ringing frost. Your
breatk floats visibly against your ckeeks and wkitens your
kair witk rime. He feels tke loop of tke snow-skoe pressing
kis foot, tke blood tingkng tkrougk kis veins, and tke wind
wkistling past kis ears as ke tears along. He looks at
tke papers : tke forecast indicates a general tkaw. Xever-
tkeless, early on Monday morning, wkile tke rain laskes
against tke windows of tke railway-carriage, tkere lie sits
witk kis snow-skoes, and a formal leave of absence from tke
Museum in kis pocket, on kis way to Voss. 'Madness,'
kis friends exclaim. ' I'm going on snow- skoes,' says
Xansen.-

' From a description of a toiir in the Jotunheim, in a letter to his father.
- He has given an acount of this journey in Aftenjoosten, March 1884.

IX BERGEX 89

And soon lie is in tlie heart of tlie mighty mountains,
with a blue winter sky overhead. He sets off over Stal-
heimskleven, following its endless zigzags, now skirting
the edge of one precipice, now veering across to the other.
' About midway, the image of a peasant, with amazement
in his face, flashed past me hke lightning ; the man had
crept close in under the cliff in sheer consternation.'

Here he is in Xferodal, where the avalanches come
crashino- down, as thunder and lio-htniDO' do in other places.
In the bottom of the valley, if local tradition may be
credited, the force of the air-current has been known to
carry people from one side of the fjord to the other. Here,
at Gudvangen, lies a great stone which came leaping from
the A'ery crest of the mountain, and went like a cannon-ball
through both walls of the first house in its path, and then
through roof and wall of the next, kilhng one old woman
and crippling another.

The evil reputation of the place does not make him
nervous or even cautious. In the heart of Lgerdal he sits
down by the wayside and eats his breakfast. The road
skirts the ravine through which, far below, the Lterdal
river foams^on the other side the mountain rises sheer,
and culminates in great dome-like summits. Behind him,
the hillside is rugged and abrupt, a fissure seams it from
top to bottom, and its slopes are almost precipitous. The
debris of a great avalanche lies all around. Xansen sits
listening to the roar of the cataract, and thinkino- of the
summer, when, fishing-rod in hand, he would saunter
through the river-gorge — there are many splendid pools
here for a fly. Suddenly he is roused by a whining voice :
' You're sitting right in the track of the avalanche ! And
you've picked out the worst possible place, too I " ' Oh,

90 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

I should hear it coming,' says Nansen. ' It comes like
a rifle-shot, that's how it comes.' And the man hastens by.

Kansen goes on with his breakfast. Then another man
appears, driving at top speed. ' This is no place for any one
who values his life ! ' — and he's gone in a flash.

But to Nansen, for the moment, his breakfast seems
more than his life ; he finishes eating before he moves.
Then he crams what is left into his wallet, and prepares
for a start. He hears afterwards that the fissure is called
Sauekilen, and that it is the worst place in the whole of
Lserdal. Here the avalanches choke up the whole breadth
of the valley ; the one that has already fallen is only the
vanguard to clear the way for the others, which may be
expected at any moment.

He takes a sketch of the remarkable place, and gets his
snow-shoes on again. Below him flows the river, thickly
flecked with ice ; the otter lives in the dark bubbling holes
among its rocks, and down by the cataract the water-ousel
twitters.

It is night when he comes to cross the summit of the
pass ; the sky is full of stars, sparkling with unusual
clearness, and shedding an uncertain light over the high
plateau. ' Nature all about was vast and silent, there was
no sound to be heard except my own footsteps in the snow.
It gives one a singular sensation thus to wander quite alone
over mountain wastes in the clear and starry night, far
from all human habitations, and high above the life of men.
One feels here that one stands alone, face to face with
Nature and God. It is useless to try to creep into hiding ;
no, a man must stand forth as he is ; there is no shelter
to be found on the naked upland.'

At last the windows of Breistolen shine out into the

IN BERGEN 91

niglit, and lie readies shelter, ' Lord in heaven ! are there
people out on the mountam so late as this ? Ah, it's you,
is it ? You're always a late bird, you are ! '

But it is on the way back to Bergen that he takes
his life in his hands time after time. First of all at the
very top of the pass, where the way leads through narrow
mountain clefts with precipices above and below. The
river, in the bottom of the ravine, rushes madly down
towards the lower valley. The surface of the road is
rounded and exceedingly slippery. ' I had to carry the
sledge more than it carried me.' When the road is better
for a bit, he falls into a brown study. ' I wonder if it was
this way King Sverre came from Yoss.' Whereupon the
sledge sheers off towards the precipice and jolts against a
stone, and the post-boy behind is almost jerked off into the
river. With one hand he grips the boy's collar, with the
other he gives the sledge a tug, and both are on even keel
again.

He passes the night at Gudbrandsgaren, the highest
farm in the district, in the direction of Sogn and Yoss. Wall
and roof are black with age and smoke ; Nansen is delighted
with the place. When the kindly people shake hands with
him and say good-bye, at three o'clock in the morning,
they beg him to go cautiously over the mountain. He has
told them that he means to cross Hallingskei and Yosse-
skavlen to Yoss, and they have warned him that it's not a
thing to be attempted on a winter's day, and that there isn't
a man in the district who would dare to go with him over
the mountain — unless, perhaps, the man at Myrstolen, who
is always tramping the uplands after ptarmigan and reindeer.
So Nansen determines to make first for Myrstolen. He must
remember, say the people at Gudbrandsgaren, that, young and

92 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

active tliongli lie may be, many a good man before liim has
met liis end upon the hills.

Off he sets by moonlight ; through the woods, between
the straight tree-trunks, across open levels, over the crackling
snow. Then the way is overshadowed again, with thick
underwood on both sides ; he slips and falls on his face in the
snow. But little by little the valley begins to widen out, all
trees and bushes disappear, the plateau billows out before
him — snow, snow, nothing but white sparkling snow. He
draws near Myrstolen ; the day announces her coming over
the mountain range in the east, with her deepest, darkest,
flame-red hues, o-rowinR' ever more and more intense. Soon
it seems as if the whole world beneath the horizon were on
fire, and its flames reflected on the sky.

The man at ]\fyrstolen is not at home, he is away on the
other side of the lake with his herd of reindeer ; they are in
the midst of marking them. The women are terrified when
they hear what route Nansen proposes to take. One of them
is a bright 3^oung girl ; he asks her for a box of matches.
Yes, he shall have it, ' but on condition you promise not to
attempt the big mountain.'

He promises to be careful ; but he might have added in
the words of the peasant who was about to take the pledge :
' To promise is easy enough ; it's keeping it that beats me.'

Presently he stands at the parting of the ways — is it to
be Aurland or Vosseskavlen ? Before him stretches a great
plain, with no mountains beyond it, but a steady descent right
to Sogn. It would be a quick run down there.

He turns. There lies the lofty plateau gleaming, with
peak on peak beyond it, like the tents of a camp, standing out
greenish-white and clear against the horizon. It is not to
be resisted. He has been here before, in fog, rain and sleet,

IN BEEGEN 93

SO he can surely make his way now, in fine weather, with the
snow in splendid condition. If he fails to get across the
mountains to-day, why then he can pass the night at Hal-
lingskei Sseter or Grondal Sseter ; and, if the worst comes to
the worst, the dry, soft snow will make a cosier bed than
a hard slab of stone, of an autumn night, when one was wet
to the skin.

He chooses the upland — the way of the reindeer. The
fresh tracks of a large flock are to be seen in the snow. The
surface is excellent ; he has the wind behind him, and his
snow-shoes scarcely leave a mark as he goes. More tracks,
first of wolves, and a little later of lynx and wolverine — they
are after the reindeer.

He makes for the Hallingskei Sasters and Grondal Lake
with its S£eter. Here he means to turn off and ascend to the
crest of the range. Tarn after tarn he passes, but never a
sseter is to be seen ; so none of these can be Grondal Lake.
When he last saw the place, it was raining, and all the
mountains around were bare ; only Vosseskavlen heaved
its mighty white crest in the south and disappeared into the
fog. Now everything is white — the lakes, the mountain
sides, and the surrounding peaks ; it does not occur to him
that one of them may be the ridge he wants. It is the
sseters, the sseters he is after ; but they seem to be bewitched.
In his impatience, he cuts straight across the windings of
the valley, over a long lake, and upon the other side — when
lo ! he finds himself on the brink of a precipice. He stands
on a hollow comb of snow, overhanging a dizzy chasm ; below,
the river rushes through a narrow gorge, and on both sides
the descent to it is precipitous. Has he ever been here
before ? He cannot remember ; but no doubt it is all right,
and he must just follow the river. He finds a way down

94 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

to it, so steep that lie has to hold his staff in the one hand
and his snow-shoes in the other, and stick them deep into
the snow. Finally, he gets down to the level of the river ;
but the banks above the waterfalls are so steep that he is
every moment in danger of plunging headlong into the black
foaming water. Whenever his footing fails, he sticks his
staff in up to the handle and hangs on to it. Presently he
comes to another rock-wall which he must clamber up. He
creeps up step by step. At the top there is an overhanging
comb of snow. He has to drive in his staff as far from
the edge as he can reach, and plant his snow-shoes by the
side of it ; the snow is fortunately hard, so that he can get a
good purchase. In this way he hauls himself up over the
edge, and then his dog after him. Then on again — another
lake — another ravine, worse than the first — and still another
lake. He must have lost his way. At the end of the lake
is a large wood, and farther on, and much lower down, a
narrow valley with birch trees on both sides. He sees clearly
that he must have strayed in the direction of Sogn, and is
no doubt not far from Kaardal. But it is Vosseskavlen he
has made up his mind to cross ; so right about face, and
over the ravines again ! Since he has come down that way,
he can of course go back ; and, sure enough, he manages it,
althouo'h it is dark by the time he crawls up the last
cliff. The snow is hard — underneath, the cataract thunders,
and above a mighty snow-comb tops the ridge. ' It was all
I could do to reach the edge of it, and plunge my staff and
snow-shoes well into the snow. For a moment I hovered
over the abyss, then got my knee well planted on the edge,
hauled myself up with all possible despatch, and stood safe
and sound on the top.'

By this time it is pitch dark ; the shining myriads

IN BERGEN 95

of stars slied only a faint glimmer over the snow-waste.
Snow upon snow — lake after lake — but no saster ! The place
must be bewitched. So far as he can make out his
watch by the starlight, it is half-past nine — bedtime, and
none too soon, certainly, for one who had been afoot since
three in the morning. But a sharp, penetrating wind is
blowing, and some sort of shelter must be found. The
wind has heaped up a high hard drift against a huge stone.
He creeps in between the comb of the snow and the stone,
hollows out a bed, puts on a woollen jersey, the only stitch
of extra clothing he has brought, and, with the dog curled
up by liis side, its head tucked under his arm, and his knap-
sack for pillow, he falls asleep.

When he wakes and peers out of his lair, the moon is
shining over the plain of snow. It is three o'clock, so he
puts on his snow-shoes. Each mountain peak stands forth in
peaceful solitude and looks out over the plateau. If only
one could see what they see !

It is clear that in the darkness he must have stumbled
upon a side valley. He retraces his steps ; but no Grondal
S£eter can he find. He enters a new valley, but sees that
here again he is on the wrong track. There is nothing for
it but to make for the top of the nearest peak, in order to
get an unobstructed view over the plateau. And there he
sees a sight ! ' If a man were going to sacrifice his life for
a spectacle, it could be for none other than this.' Before
him and on all sides stretches the plateau, like a frozen sea
of white foam-waves, billowing into ridges and vaUe3^s, calm-
ing down again to great plains, and then towering aloft into
sharp peaks and pinnacles, one after the other, as far as eye
can reach towards the horizon, where it is lost in a haz}^
shimmer. And over the whole rolling ocean the moon sheds

96 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

her mild and peaceful radiance, glancing and gleaming on
tlie ice-crests, sparkling on the snow, while the vallej^s are
plunged in dark and sinister shadows.

Due east, not far off, Hallingskarven rears its arched
and mighty bulk ; far to the south, the Har danger glacier,
with its sharp outlines, glitters and shines ; and in the west,
a mountain stands forth abruptly against the sky — it must
be Vosseskavlen. Directly at his feet the ground shelves
down into the darkness, and overhead the dome of heaven
soars blue, and clear, the glory of the moon almost eclipsing
the countless host of stars.

But the moonlight is deceptive. It would be wisest
to wait till dawn. Again he dug a bed in the snow and
went to sleep. A couple of hours later, when he awoke,
the first flush of the dawn was illumining the peaks. Now
he saw plainly — to be sure it was Vosseskavlen. But he
must wait till the sunrise, he must see that from here. At
last a single bright beam comes shooting through space,
glances across the plateau, and kisses the peaks. Then a
whole flood of rays bursts forth, steeping everything in its
glow of colour. The peaks seem to shoot up as they
redden, the snow- crests blush and shimmer, the valleys
remain plunged in their chill shadows. To see a sight like
this is indeed to hold communion with JSTature, to feel the
touch of higher powers, to be lifted towards worlds un-
dreamt of ; it is to obtain a glimpse of eternity.^

He strikes upwards towards Vosseskavlen. There are
dangers enough and pitfalls enough, but on he goes. When
he is almost at the top of the range, he feels he deserves a

^ Nansen's own account of this journey has been followed closely, and even
verbally, though of course with considerable curtailment.

IN BERGEN 97

reward for his labour, and lie eats his last orange. It is
quite frozen, and as hard as a cocoanut. But so much the
better — it is a fruit ice.

Thus did he conquer Vosseskavlen. He had achieved
one of the most perilous mountaineering feats on record
since the days of King Sverre. Had he not been an athlete
of the first rank, and especially had he not possessed the
genius and sure instinct of bravery, he would have laid his
bones up there under the snow-combs, and would never
have reached any other ' inland ice.'

Yet it is in reference to this tour that Nansen writes
to his father, grumbling because people call it foolhardy.
Either he must be stupid, or else other people must ?je
tremendously wise ; why should this little adventure be
represented as so terrible a breach of the so-called rules and
regulations of common prudence ? Why, he would like to
know, should he be supposed to be so much more tired of
his life than other people ?

No, he was certainly not tired of life ; on the contrary,
he set the highest value on it. The farther he advanced
in his studies and observations, the more his self-confidence
increased.

On March 29, 1885, he writes to his father one of the
last letters he was ever to send him — a letter warmly
inspired by filial feeling, and yet full of the sense of personal
power. It appears that he has had thoughts of leaving the
Museum, and that the economic outlook causes him no
anxiety. He has, in fact, various sources of income in
reserve. ' I am quite prepared, at a pinch, to put up with
the very plainest living, particularly for the sake of my
scientific studies, which are my delight, and for which I

98 LIFE OF FKIDTIOF NAXSEN

would willingly sacrifice all the otlier so-called necessaries
of life.' Does not the assistant at the Museum live on
something like 55Z. a year, with his wife and family, of
whom several are now grown up ? 'To require little is a
better capital than to earn much. The need to earn much
fetters and enslaves a man, while the ability to do with little
makes him free. He who needs little will more easily strive
towards the goal he has in view, and will in general lead a
fuller, richer life than he who has many wants.' He is
thinking of travelling to prosecute his studies, and he also
mentions the American scheme. ' I think that, when the
opportunity presents itself, there is nothing so conducive to
development as travel, seeing other parts of the world and
the civilisation of other races, beyond the bounds of this
tiresome Europe.'

For the present, however, no new departure is made.
On the very same morning on which he despatched this
letter, Danielssen made him the most accommodating offers
of leave of absence. He can make what arrangements he
pleases for his journey, and start when he pleases. JSTansen
determines to see the summer througli at all events ; but
he ' thinks he'll accept.' As is well known, he continued to
be associated with Bergen for several years more. Not until
his return from the Greenland expedition was the tie really
broken. It is clear that the indefatigable Danielssen endea-
voured to the very last to attach this coming man to the
Institution" for whose service he thought the very best
talents none too good. The correspondence between the
two proves this. On the other hand, we cannot tell whether
he exercised any influence with reference to the negotiations
which appear to have been going on in the beginning of

IN BERGEN 99

1887 between Nansen and Professor David Starr Jordan,
then of the University of Bloomington, Indiana.

Early in January 1887 Professor Jordan enquired of
Professor Collett whether he or Professor Sars happened
to have among his students a man who would like to try
his luck in America. The idea was that such a person
might begin with a thousand dollars a year, and that both
salary and duties should increase with each year. He
mentioned Hansen's name. Upon Collett's communicating
this to Nansen, he replied that he was much tempted,
but that he foresaw difficulties. • He wrote personally to
Professor Jordan, to whom Collett had warmly recommended
him. Since the correspondence led to no result, we may
conclude either that the difficulties proved insuperable, or
that the scheme of the Greenland expedition had in the
meantime thrust itself into the foreground and blocked
the way.

Nansen's scientific work at the Bergen Museum will be
dealt with later on by a writer who can treat the subject
with authority. In the meantime we must pause to relate
a brief, but important episode in the life of the young
zoologist. Its scene is neither the Greenland ice-fields, nor
Indiana, nor 'west of the Eocky Mountains.' It is, as a
matter of fact, still within the bounds of ' tiresome Europe,'
though certainly one of the most endurable spots on this
hemisphere — to wit, Naples.

100 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTER VI

m NAPLES

In the course of his studies of the nervous system, Nansen
became acquainted with the chromic silver method of
staining the nerve fibres invented by Professor Golgi of
Pavia.^

In order thoroughly to familiarise himself with this
important auxiliary to the investigations which had now
occupied him for several years, he determined, in the spring
of 1886, to go to Italy. Partly under Golgi's personal
guidance, and partly at the Zoological Station in Naples,
where he would find ample material, he hoped to be able
to carry his researches somewhat further than had been
possible with the methods hitherto in vogue. The previous
year, at the Bergen Museum, he had won the Joachim
Friele gold medal for his work on the myzostoma. He
had taken the medal in copper, and applied the value of
the gold to his travelling expenses.

After a short stay in Pavia, where he conferred with
Professor Grolgi and Dr. Fusari, he went on to Naples, where
he spent the following months, from April till June 1886,
at the celebrated Zoological Station.

Along that beautiful curve of the sea, the Spiaggia di
Chiaja, between the old fort, Castel dell' Ovo, and La
Mergellina, stretches a magnificent promenade, the Via

' See the following chapter.

IN NAPLES 101

Caracciolo. This is the Corso of the Neapohtans ; but
unhke the Eoman Corso, which is a cramped, narrow,
perfectly straight street, between gloomy old palaces, the
Via Caracciolo is a gracefully curving, broad and open
esplanade, affording a continuous view over the blue sea,
with Capri visible in the south and Cape Posilippo in the
west.

Bordering on this unique promenade, crowded ever}^
evening during the season with handsome equipages and
well-appointed horsemen, lies the park of JSTaples, the
marvellously beautiful ' Villa JSFazionale,' with its avenues
of acacia and ilex, its swaying palms, and, scattered amongst
the bosky thickets, a host of white marble statues — no mere
tiresome reproductions in stone of politicians and generals,
but copies of the famous masterpieces of antiquity.

In the midst of this noble and beautiful park, where one
wanders about in a day-dream, wishing the clock of time
could be put back a couple of thousand years or so, lies
one of the most modern and go-ahead of scientific institu-
tions— the famous Zoological Station : the ' aquario ' as the
Neapolitans call it. Among the luxuriant verdure of the
park vegetation, the two stately white buildings shine
forth, with their simple and noble outlines, visible for a
great distance around, and dominating the scene, as befits a
temple of science.

The story of how it came there — this creation of a single
man's inspired thought and indomitable energy — reads
almost like a fairy tale.

In the year 1870, Dr. Anton Dohrn, a young privat-
docent from Jena, thirty years of age, betook himself to
Naples with the object of calling into existence a new auxi-
liary to biological study, through the establishment of a

102 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Zoological Station on the shores of the Mediterranean,
whose animal life surpasses that of all other known seas
in wealth and variety. Every educated man now knows,
in a general way at all events, what a Zoological Station
is. At that time no one had heard of such a thing ; for the
idea was absolutely new and was evolved by Dolirn himself.

Before Dohrn's time, zoologists in general were compelled
to study the fauna of the ocean, which includes the richest
variety of organisms, solely by means of dead specimens
preserved in spirit, for the most part curled up and squeezed
together, transformed in many respects at the very moment
of death, and often, too, badly enough cared for in the
museums. Only a very few had any opportunity of studying
the living organisms in the sea itself.

To create a new institution for the advancement of
science, where investigators should be enabled to study
' from the life ' the fauna of the sea in all its forms, and to
follow with a minuteness hitherto undreamt of the vital
processes, the development, the propagation, etc., of the
particular organisms — such was the great goal Dohrn pro-
posed to himself. ' As a somnambulist sometimes passes
safely by the precipices on both sides of his path,' so Dohrn
went straight to his goal. He sought out the most beautiful
spot on earth, the ' Villa Nazionale ' of Naples, and in 1870
applied to the municipality for an adequate site for a
' Zoological Station,' he himself offering to furnish the neces-
sary means.

After encountering many difficulties, his request,
strangely enough, was granted. The building was begun.
With immovable confidence in the triumph of his idea, he
sank his entire fortune in it. When the building, however,
was still far from complete, it turned out, as it so often

IN NAPLES 103

does, that the money was insufficient. Dohrn hurries off to
Berlin and apphes to the German Government for a sub-
vention. The minister, Dr. Delbriick, at first refuses his
application, but promises — after a brilliant scene with the
young privatdocent — that if Dohrn can procure the recom-
mendation of the Academy, the government will consider the
matter.

JSTever doubting that this recommendation will be easily
obtained, Dohrn returns to Naples ; it is only a question
now of getting the building roofed in before the beginning
of the rainy season. What happens ? The architect, with
whom he had fallen out, had during Dohrn's absence brought
to the notice of the municipality a departure from the
original plan — a departure for which he himself was respon-
sible— and, under the influence of a sudden gust of hostility
towards the foreigner who wanted to build a palace in the
midst of their beautiful park, the authorities forbade the
continuation of the work. There certainly must be some-
thing or other behind all this, thought the JSTeapolitans ;
it was not to be believed that any one should throw his
money out of the windows, as Dohrn had done, in the mere
ardour of scientific enthusiasm.

With some difficulty, Dohrn obtained permission to roof
the building ; but four weeks later orders came from the
municipality to stop all work. Dohrn did everything in his
power, without avail. Whilst all this was going on, he
received, on Christmas Eve, 1873, a letter from Du Bois-
Eeymond in Berlin, to the effect that the Academy, too,
had refused its recommendation, and that thus the prospect
of a contribution from the German Government towards the
completion of the building had come to nothing.

Most men, under these dismal circumstances, would

104 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

certainly have looked upon the matter as hopeless. Not
so Dohrn. He followed Du Bois-Eeymond's advice, sum-
moned up all his energy, and set off for Berlin that very
evening. 'I have known pleasanter Christmas Eves than
that one,' he remarks in his interesting account of his
experiences — and one can well imagine it. In Berlin he
hoped to win over the members of the Academy by his
personal influence ; and that he succeeded in doing. Thus
the government contribution to the building-fund was
secured. This, however, was not sufficient ; in Naples,
matters were in such a bad w^ay that his only hope lay in
diplomatic influence ; and he succeeded in interesting the
Prince Imperial of Germany in the affair. Shortly after,
when the question of the building once more came up for
consideration in the Town Council of JSTaples, Dohrn had,
by his energy, succeeded in placing his plans in so
favourable a light, that his supporters carried the day, and
permission to go on with the building was accorded him.
When finally, after five years of toil and struggle, the Naples
Zoological Station was inaugurated, it might truly be said
that here was a new laboratory for scientific research, whose
influence would make itself felt through all time.

The Zoological Station, with its celebrated aquarium, is
now the first in the world, and one of the sights of Naples
which no traveller omits to visit. But in the upper stories,
above the public hall, students of every nationality have
their own aquariums, their own places for study, equipped
with every conceivable modern appliance. The results of
their researches have gone forth in an imposing series of
publications; and still more important is the indirect
influence which the Station has exercised upon biological
studies in all countries.

IN NAPLES 105

Dohrn's inspired idea, as he himself predicted from
the outset, has found numberless imitators. He prophesied
that ' in one or at most two decades, the earth would be
completely enveloped in a network of Zoological Stations.'
At that time this prophecy was looked upon as fantastic,
and contributed not a little to the difficulties which beset
him. As a matter of fact, there are at this moment
scattered about the world at least fifty such biological
stations, on the shores of nearly every sea ; but the one at
Naples is still beyond comparison not only the most famous,
but also the largest, best equipped, and most important of
them all.

A prolonged visit to a scientific laboratory of this de-
scription could not fail to exercise a most beneficial
influence upon Hansen's development — not only directly,
through the admirable facilities here ofiered him for carry-
ing on his special studies of the nervous system, but perhaps
even more in another way.

Dohrn himself, during Nansen's stay in Kaples, had come
to the very end even of his remarkable energy. His tw^o
eldest sons were dangerously ill, and his wife's strength
was terribly overtaxed by their illness. Nevertheless, the
daily routine went on uninterrupted, and continual contact
with a personality so strongly marked as that of Dohrn
undoubtedly left its impress. In a little article by Nansen
which appeared in Naturen (1887) after his return, de-
scribing the Zoological Station, his enthusiasm for Dohrn's
life-work shines forth from every line, as well as his
admiration for just that quality of irresistible energy which
had achieved so great a result. We quote this brief de-
scription of the arrangements at the Station :

' The whole basement of the great building is fitted

106 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NAXSEN

up as an aquarium for tlie general public ; an aquarium
which it would certainly be difficult to rival. This great
room, with its many tanks, is soberly decorated, with a
complete avoidance of all humbug ^ or fantastic ornament,
which would only serve to distract the attention from its
essential purposes. It has a great attraction not only for the
ordinary traveller, but for the scientific student as well.
Down here he is able to j^ass hours in communion with
Nature, and face to face with the rarest of marine organisms ;
and in a comparatively brief time he may learn more of
the life of the world than he could by long grubbing in
volumes of printed wisdom, or rooting through the dead
treasures of museums. He will contract the habit of using
his eyes and his powers of observation upon living nature,
and learn to regard life as the essential object of research.'

In this hall, with its subdued light and with all the
strange animals around him — cuttlefish, starfish, snails, and
radiata of all kinds, making one feel just as though one
were living at the bottom of the sea — Nansen sat and
gazed and thought, and did his devotions to Nature face
to face with her living forms.

He thus continues his description : ' Acquaintance with
the Station, for the majority of tourists, does not extend
]:)eyond this room. Far more important to science, how-
ever, are the laboratories situated in the upper stories of
the building. Here naturalists from almost all European
countries are at work, here they have everything they can
possibly require for their studies. They can come to the
Station, sit down at . the work-table assigned to them, tell
tlie Curator, Salvatore Lo Bianco, what particular animals
they want, and presently the animals are brought alive to

' Nansen's own word.

IN NAPLES 107

their very tables, where they can study them at leisure,
with no need to stir from their places except for meals and
sleep. Instruments, smaller tanks in which to keep the
animals alive, and an excellent library, are all just at
hand. This concentration of appliances is the novel and
important feature of the institution. ... If the workers
are tired of the laboratory, they are free to go out in the
vessels belonging to the Station, and watch the gathering
in of fresh specimens. Besides several fishing boats, the
Station owns two small steamers. . . . These steamers and
boats are equipped for dredging, trawling, net-fishing,
surface-fishing, and so forth. They are also supplied with
diving apparatus, so that in this way, too, you can fetch
up whatever you want.'

Intensely absorbed as Nansen was in his studies, no one
who knows him will need to be told that the splendid
scenery of ISTaples and the animated life of the gay city
were by no means without attractions for him. ' Er war
den Freuden des Lebens nicht abliold, und war ein flotter
Tanzer,' says Professor Dohrn in a letter to the present
writers ; and who indeed, under such circumstances, could
help rejoicing in life, not merely the life of the aquariums,
but the vivid, pulsating southern life at the foot of Vesuvius,
in a region which has for thousands of years been famed
as an earthly paradise ?

In letters from his friends of these days, we find lively
reminiscences of excursions, now in the moonlight to the
vineyards of San Sebastiano, now over the blue billows to
Capri and Sorrento.

One of these friends, a Hungarian scientist, writes to us :
* He was the life and soul of all our little festivities. Most of
the students then working at the Station were in the habit of

108 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XANSEN

meeting at the Cafe Basta on the Corso Yittorio Emmanuele ;
every evening at supper-time there was a little feast here, a
musical gathering, light-hearted and refreshing in the highest
degree. Nansen contributed greatly to the prevailing gaiety.
It sometimes happened that we devotees of science became
so enlivened with wine and music, that we proceeded to
dance a quadrille ; and on these occasions JSTansen was
Master of the Ceremonies.

' Once we chartered a carriage to drive to Castellamare
and Sorrento by the famous coast road. On the wa}^, another
carriage with two ladies came up behind us. The ladies
amused themselves by racing us and laughing at us as
they shot past ; whereupon Nansen sprang out of the
carriage and ran by the side of the horse a long stretch
of the way. Thus we overtook the ladies again, to the
unbounded merriment of both parties.

' In Sorrento ISTansen met some Norwegian ladies. I was
very tired and went to bed ; but the Norwegian ladies
wanted to get up a dance, and as there was a scarcity of
partners, my presence was required. Nansen declined
to give me a moment's peace till I got up and dressed
myself. Then he dragged me into the drawing-room,
where we were greeted with loud applause by the ladies,
who were quite alive to the situation.

'At other times he would be quiet and absorbed, and
would sit by the hour without uttering a word. I have
seen him at the foot of Vesuvius, among the ruins of San
Sebastiano, and on the melancholy lava- wastes. San
Sebastiano was devasted by the eruption of 1874 ; nothing-
was left but a church. I have seen him sitting on a block
of lava there by the church, hour after hour without stirring ;
he simph' sat and gazed out into the' distance. Time

IN NAPLES 109

after time we others tried to make a start, and called to
him — he never moved. Afterwards, on the way home,
as he and I walked together, arm in arm, I tried to make
him talk, but found him absolutely mute — there was not a
word to be got out of him.'

It seems as though the gladness of youth and the stern
vocation of the man were struggling within him for mastery,
and he doubly relishes dancing amongst the orange trees
and the roses, because he dimly foresees the first hard steps
across the ice-fields of Greenland. Two years later, up
there in the midst of the ice, he sits outside the tent,
feasting upon a few mouthfuls of biscuit with melted snow,
lemon-juice, and sugar, while the moonbeams play over the
boundless desolation. Then his thoughts go back to the
conditions amid which he last ate ' granita,' and he recalls
' one warm summer night by the Bay of Naples, with the
moonbeams playing over the dark waves of the Mediter-
ranean.'

The Zoological Station in Naples occupies a unique
position. It is, after a fashion, a kingdom in itself, with
complete autonomy. It is independent, but connected by
alliance with no fewer than twenty-four European states.
It has become, as Nansen puts it, ' a central organ for
zoology.' 'It is a kind of international scientific exchange
where the various peoples meet and join hands, where
research is carried on with assiduity, and where the
burning scientific questions of the day are sifted and
discussed in a fashion which helps in no small degree to
render a stay at this Station inspiring and profitable.'

Its organisation is also in a sense international, in that
it is maintained by subsidies from most of the European
states, which acquire, in exchange for their annual contri-

no LIFE OF FRIDTTOF XAXSEN

bution, the right to one or more places for students of their
respective nationalities. Thus the German Government
contributes 4,000/. a year ; the Italian Government pays
500/. for five places (besides contributing 200/. to the
library fund) ; the Austrian Government pays about 200/. ;
and so forth. The following states have rights of admission
to the station : Prussia, Baden, Saxony, Bavaria, Hesse,
Wilrtemberg, Austria-Hungary, Eussia, Holland, Belgium,
Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, besides the town of Hamburg,
the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Strasburg, and
the Berlin Academy. An American millionaire is also
among the contributors. The Scandinavian countries have
no right of admission, so that J^ansen was simply a ' guest '
at the Station, through Dohrn's special courtesy. He
is not the only zoologist from the northern kingdoms
who has in this way enjoyed the hospitality of this great
biological centre, and he certainly does not stand alone
in desiring that the three Scandinavian countries might
combine to furnish the required annual contribution for, at
the very least, a single right of admission.

After ISTansen's return home, he was naturally very desir-
ous of making Dohrn's idea bear fruit in the establishment
of a biological station on the west coast of Norway, where
the marine fauna certainly presents highly interesting charac-
teristics. His little article in Naturen accordingly ends with
a hint in this direction. He laid before Dr. Danielssen the
plan of a zoological station in Bergen, but Danielssen could
not at first give his full adhesion to the scheme. Thus
Nansen himself was the first man in Norway to advance
formal proposals for the establishment of a biological station.
The Greenland expedition, how^ever, intervened to prevent
him from prosecuting his idea in its original form.

IN NAPLES 111

His scheme, in so far as it related to Bergen, was after-
wards taken up most energetically by Dr. J. Brunchorst ;
and, about the same time, Nansen, together with Professor
G. A. Guldberg, Professor N. Wille, and others, took the
initiative in founding yet another JSTorwegian biological
station in Drobak, a little way south of Christiania. This
station was inaugurated in 1894 ; and it is needless to say
that, at its opening, Nansen was justly remembered as the
man who had first conceived the idea of biolog-ical
stations for Norway.

Hansen's stay in Naples has thus been fertile of good
results, not only through the impulse given to his own
zoological work, but also through his transplantation to
Norway of Dohrn's idea.

Once again we must emphasise the fact that Professor
Dohrn's great life-work, and the man himself in another and
more personal way, exercised an abiding influence upon
Nansen. It was inevitable that the greatly inspired and
splendidly successful achievement of an indomitable soul, not
less than that indomitable soul itself, should make a peculiar
impression upon a nature like Nansen's, and should fix itself
before his mind's eye as an encouraging example of what
idealism on a great scale, with resolution to support it, is able
to accomplish. There is no doubt whatever that the under-
taking which was to becom.e the goal of all his energies, and
upon which he was to stake his life — to wit, the solution of
the Arctic enigmas — was secretly taking firm hold of his
mind even in Naples, under the blue skies of the south,
in the spring of 1886. It seems indubitable that 'a virtue
went forth ' from the association with Dohrn, however little
he and those about him may have divined the true strength
of Nansen's character.

112 LIFE OF FPJDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTER VII

FRIDTIOF NANSEN AS A BIOLOGIST
By GusTAF Eetzius.

I HAVE accepted with pleasure the editor's invitation to sketch
in brief outline Fridtiof Nansen's work in the sphere of
biology — as a histologist and zoologist. Many of his own
countrymen are doubtless quite as competent as I to discharge
this dut}^ ; but my own labours in two different directions
having led me into the same fields of study, I have had,
perhaps, unusual opportunities, both through his writings
and in personal intercourse, of appreciating not only his
talent, but his ' sacred ardour.'

Although Nansen's actual work as a biologist has, up to
the present, extended over a comparatively short space of
time, he has already succeeded in doing good service in
several directions.

His first work of importance appeared in 1885 under
the title ' Contribution to the Anatomy and Histology of
the Myzostoma,' a folio of eight}^ pages, illustrated with nine
plates, founded on his own drawings.

The myzostoma are a small group of worms (first
described in 1847 by the German zoologist, F. S. Leuckart)
which live as parasites upon certain radiata (crinoidea),
and which, obviously by reason of their parasitic mode
of life, have undergone highly significant secondary varia-
tions. Several eminent investigators, such as Sven Lov6n

FEIDTIOF NANSEN AS A BIOLOGIST

ii:

(1840), Semper (1858), Graff, Metsclmikoff (1866), and Beard
(1884), have made a study of their structure and to some
extent of their evolution as well, and endeavoured to
determine from what non-parasitic species they are derived.
Not being a specialist in this department, I have applied

to Professor A. Wiren, who has been so good as to favour
me with the following information.

The so-called Schnitzerei-Teknik (serial section cutting)
had just at that time come into general use. With its aid
Nansen carried out extensive investigations into the more
delicate structures of the myzostoma, and succeeded in
correcting and enlarging in many respects the views of his

114 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

predecessors. Whether his explanation of certain organs
(as, for instance, the suckers, the foot-ganglia, the ovaries)
is correct or not, further investigation must decide.-^
The work referred to, however, establishes beyond a doubt
not only its author's mastery of the technical processes of
the time, but also his great perseverance and originality.

The myzostoma exhibits — not outwardly, but in many
important parts of its organisation — a marked resemblance
to a group of worms numerously represented amongst the
fauna of the sea, the chsetopod annelids, of which several
are external or internal parasites of other marine animals, and
have therefore undergone considerable variations, especially
in outward form. For the present, the myzotoma is usually
regarded as a chastopod, or at least as closely related to that
family, although modified by its parasitism. The theory
has also been advanced that they may be related to
certain spiders. Towards the confirmation of the former
opinion Nansen's work appears to have indirectly contri-
buted, especially through his description of the throat-
nerves which he discovered. ISTansen himself, however,
puts forward, with every reservation, the hypothesis that
they may be derived from a species related both to the
annelids and to the spiders.

In the ' Annual Eeport of the Bergen Museum for
1886,' which appeared in 1887, we find a new and im-
portant work by Nansen.

While he had concentrated his investigations upon
a special system of organs, he had at the same time extended
them over a considerable portion of the animal kingdom.
With all his youthful energy, he had thrown himself into the

^ That Nansen was mistaken as regards the ovaries, has, I think, been
conclusively established. — A. WiriSn.

FEIDTIOF NANSEN AS A BIOLOGIST 115

examination of tlie finer structure of tlie central nervous
system ; and lie now devoted himself not onty to the study of
worms, but also to that of crustaceans and molluscs, and
even took into his ken the lowest vertebrates — the lancelet
fish (amphioxus) and the ' hag ' (myxine).

At this time chaos still reigned in that great and obscure
department. It is true that various investigators had en-
deavoured to solve the intricate problems it presented, and
neither expositions nor theories were lacking in regard to
the nerve elements, ganglion-cells, and nerve-fibres, their
courses and inter-relations. It was especially with the aid of
the Schnitzerei and staining processes that endeavours were
made to clear up the subject, and Nansen, among the rest,
laboured perseveringly at these methods. But he soon
found that they alone would not lead to the desired goal, and
therefore cast about for new ideas and new devices. An
Italian histologist — Grolgi, of Pa via — had several years before
invented the method of treating the nerve tissues with chro-
mic acid, and afterwards with a solution of caustic, in order
to stain the nerve-cells and their offshoots black, so that
their form, situation, and course should stand out clearly
defined upon the otherwise light-coloured substances under
investigation. Golgi had employed this method of his upon
the brain and spinal cord of the human being and of certain
quadrupeds and birds, and had published his results, partly
in short articles in Italian periodicals, and partly in a work
of larger dimensions, which appeared in 1885. These
conclusions of Golgi's appeared so extraordinary to the
majority of histologists that they were received with scepti-
cism, and were even in some cases criticised with asperity.
But Fridtiof Nansen recognised their significance. He went
straight to Italy, familiarised himself on the spot with the

116 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

details of the process, and then attempted to apply it on
a large scale. So far as I can discover, Nansen was the
first to employ the Golgi process in the study of the
nervous system of invertebrates. Golgi's pupil Fusari had
previously tested the process in the study of fishes, but had
not applied it to the lowest vertebrates, the amphioxus
and the myxine.

By the use both of this new method and of the above-
mentioned Schnitzerei process, followed by staining with
the usual dyes (hematoxylin and aniline colours), Nansen
succeeded in penetrating some way further than his pre-
decessors into the secrets of the structure of the central
nervous system. His long paper, published (in English) in
the ' Annual Eeport of the Bergen Museum for 1886,' under
the title of The Structure and Combination of the Histological
Elements of the Central Nervous System^ will therefore always
take an honourable place in the literature of this depart-
ment of science. With regard to the most delicate colloca-
tion of nerve-cells and fibres, Nansen took up and worked
out a fundamental conception which had been originally
enunciated by the great German histologist Leydig. Though
I, for my part, have not been able to accept this view (of
which a detailed account would be out of place), I must
emphasise the fact that we are here face to face with a
question which cannot as yet be answered with certainty,
and upon which the last word has assuredly not been said.

In his studies of the central nervous system of inverte-
brates, Nansen succeeded in tracing the ganglia of the nerve
cells for longer or shorter distances, and in many cases
found that they gave off lesser side-shoots, which struck
inwards, and contributed to form the so-called granular matter
(punkt'Substans). Had he had the opportunity of carrying

FEIDTIOF NANSEN AS A BIOLOGIST 117

his investigations further, with the assistance of the Golgi
method, and especially if he had been able to take up
another process, discovered about this time by Professor
Ehrlich — to wit, the colouring of the nerve-elements of
living animals by the aid of metylen blue — he would certainly
have been able to co-operate to a greater extent in that
unravelling of the liner structure of the nervous system in
the lower animals which has taken place during the past
ten years. But Nansen, it is clear, was already sensible
of an ever-increasing bent towards Arctic exploration ;
and such is the nature of scientific work that each depart-
ment of it claims the entire and exclusive devotion of
those engaged in it. As the poet (Carl Snoilsky) says :

' You must be one thing, and one alone, and that wholly.'

Work with the microscope of necessity demands much time.
Concurrently with it, even if a man brings all his energies
to bear, he can scarcely do much in other departments.
However regrettable it may be that Fridtiof JSTansen was
unable to carry further the investigations into the central
nervous system which had been begun with such spirit and
on so large a scale, it must be admitted that in this field
there was no lack of competent workers. In the domain of
Arctic exploration, on the other hand, Fridtiof ISiansen stood
first among the men on whom progress depended, as he
plainly showed, not long after, by his journey across the
Greenland ice-fields, and later by his splendidly conceived
Polar expedition.

In the course of his investigations into the more delicate
structure of the spinal cord of the amphioxus and myxine,
Nansen made several discoveries, upon one or two of which,
as possessing the most general significance, I must touch

118 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF HANSEN

at greater length. In tlie spinal cord of the amphioxus he
found no true neuroglia — that supporting or insulating
tissue wherein the actual nerve-elements generally lie em-
bedded— but he described, in the tissues around the central
canal, a species of ' epithelial ' cells (ependym) radiating out-
wards, in which he recognised the neuroglia cells of this
animal, maintaining that they rejDresented the lowest form
of neuroglia known among the vertebrates. In the myxine,
indeed, he again found these ependym cells, but also true
neuroglia cells, although of a peculiar character ; whence he
concluded that the neuroglia cells have their origin in the
outer cotyledon, from which also the actual nerve tissue is
derived. This theory of Hansen's has since been corro-
borated by numerous observations, and has won universal
acceptance. In the case of the myxine, he further dis-
covered that the nerve fibres which compose the sensitive
nerve roots of the spinal cord, after their entrance into
the spinal cord, divide into two branches, of which the
one runs at right angles and backwards (down), and the
other forwards, up the spinal cord. This discovery has since
been verified by the Spanish nerve-histologist, Eamony Cajal,
and by various other investigators, and is proved, in the case
of vertebrates, to be an important and universal law. The
bifurcation of the sensitive nerve-roots ought therefore to be
designated by the name of its real discoverer, ISTansen.

Soon after this we find the young Norwegian biologist
engaged upon the solution of another problem which
had hitherto defied research — the problem as to the develop-
ment of the above-mentioned 'hag,' myxine glutinosa. This
singular animal, one of the lowest of vertebrates, swarms in
the northern seas, along the entire Norwegian coast, and
also on the M^est coast of Sweden, On several accounts, it

FEIDTIOF NANSEN AS A BIOLOGIST 119

would be of interest to science to discover its mode of pro-
pagation and development. The English zoologist, G. P.
Cunningham, who had applied himself most zealously to this
problem, had advanced the opinion (in his first treatise on
the subject, published in 1886) that a great number of these
animals are hermaphrodite, particularly in the younger,
undeveloped state, since the hinder part of the meso-
varium formed a mesorchium, which contained germs in
its vesicles in different stages of development. He also
described certain cell-forms which he regarded as sperma-
tozoa.

Fridtiof Nansen now subjected this question of the myxine
to closer study. After laborious investigation, he came to
conclusions which in the main coincided with Cunningham's.
In his essay, entitled A Protandric Hermaphrodite [Mycciiie
glutinosa, L.) amongst the Vertebrates (published in the
' Annual Eeport of the Bergen Museum for 1887 '), he advances
the opinion that the myxine in its earlier phases is a mascu-
line animal, while in its later development it becomes, for
the most part, feminine. He also described the develop-
ment of the mesorchium vesicles and the appearance of the
spermatozoa at different stages of development. There is
much evidence in favour of his view ; but, in spite of zealous
and comprehensive investigation, neither he nor the zoologists
who have since devoted themselves to the subject have
succeeded in making entirely clear the development of this
singular animal. The works of Cunningham and Nansen,
however, have brought us somewhat nearer to the solution
of the problem.

Fridtiof I^ansen had for many years taken a lively interest
in yet another important biological problem, viz. the develop-
ment of the Cetaceans. These remarkable marine mam-

120 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

mals, obviously descended from animals which formerly
lived on land, must, in their development, show traces ot
their origin. What was known on this subject possessed
great interest, but much still remained to be discovered. It
was a question of obtaining good material for study ; but
this was particularly difficult to come by. Pridtiof JSTansen
did not shrink from the task. With his customary perse-
verance, he succeeded in adding considerably to the number
of embryo Cetaceans in the Bergen Museum. When he
came home from his great expedition across the interior of
Greenland, he determined to devote himself to the investi-
gation of these interesting embryos, and as soon as he was
settled in Christiania he joined forces with his friend. Pro-
fessor Gustav Guldberg, who had already made valuable
investigations into the anatomy of the whale. So, in the
winter of 1891-92, they worked together in the anatomical
school of the University of Christiania, concerning them-
selves in particular with the small embryos of the Lageno-
rhynchus acutus. After tha.t, Hansen's time was so much taken
up with preparations for the North Pole Expedition that
he was unable to do more than hold an occasional con-
ference with his collaborator on the subject of their
investigations, and left the carrying out of the scheme
entirely to Professor Guldberg.

Towards the end of 1894 the first part of their folio
work appeared, under the title : ' On the Development and
Structure of the Whale. Part I. On the Development of
the Delphin ; by Gustaf Guldberg and Fridtiof Nansen.
Bergen Museum. V.' For the reasons stated, it is not pos-
sible for me to say how much of this great work, illustrated
with seven plates, was done by Nansen ; but in any case
he essentially contributed to the collection of material, and

FRIDTIOF NANSEN AS A BIOLOGIST 121

shared in the planning of the essay, besides taking part
in the earher stages of the investigations.

The above brief outline shows beyond a doubt that
Fridtiof Nansen, in a space of scarcely five years — a ]3eriod
which must be regarded as particularly limited and meagre
where wide-reachinc^ biolog'ical research is concerned —
succeeded in accomplishing several pieces of solid work.
It likewise appears that, as his largely moulded nature
would lead us to expect, he grappled gallantly with great
and difficult problems, and showed a faculty of insight that
went straight to the heart of things. No one who has
any real knowledge of his character can doubt that, if he
had not been drawn by an irresistible inward vocation
towards the great goal of polar research, he would have
carried on his admirably planned biological investigations
with the perseverance and tenacious energy peculiar to him,
and would have added to his record many another im-
portant piece of work.

Everyone, therefore, who is interested in biology hopes
that, after happily achieving his polar quest, Nansen will
return with the whole force of his mind to that field of
investigation, in which he has doubtless many tasks to exe-
cute, many discoveries to make, many problems to solve.

By the great public, Fridtiof Nansen is known and
admired chiefly as the dauntless explorer of the unknown
wastes of the North Pole. I trust the above little sketch
may help to impress upon the public, and particularly on
the Scandinavian peoples, that ISFansen is also an investigator
of note in another domain, which, though it does not attract
so much attention, perhaps deserves it no less.

Voyages of discovery in the quiet study, in the laboratory,
in the world of the microscope, in Nature's secret workshop —

122 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

tliese too minister to the enliglitenment of mankind and the
progress of civihsation. In this field Fridtiof JSTansen proved
himself a born discoverer, and, at an unusually early age, de-
veloped an activity which was rich in promise. Let us hope he
may be destined soon to take up again the threads which
his Arctic exploration has for the present forced him to drop.
Let us hope he may continue his voyages of discovery in the
extensive and as yet imperfectly charted domain of biology, in
which limitless unknown regions still await exploration.

123

CHAPTER VIII

GEEENLAND

We are now at the turning-point in Hansen's life, when
he seriously sets about the preparations for his expedition
to Greenland. The previous chapter will, we hope, have
dissipated the misapprehension that Nansen is a great
sportsman and nothing more. In this chapter and the
next we shall endeavour to make clear the scientific im-
port of his work as an explorer. We shall give a brief geo-
graphical survey of the country which he was the first to
penetrate from east to west, and an account of the geological
period upon which his achievement was to shed a new light.
The chapters, then, will deal with ' Greenland ' and with
' The Great Ice Age.'

When, in the summer of 985, Eric the Eed returned to
Iceland, whence, several years earlier, he had fled as an
outlawed manslayer, he told of a great newly discovered
land far to the west, which he called Greenland, because, as
he said, people would be encouraged to settle there if the
country bore an attractive name. As a matter of fact
(according to the Saga) many fell into the trap ; for that
very same summer twenty-five ships are said to have sailed
for Greenland from Breidafiord and Borgarfiord in Iceland.
Only fourteen of them, however, reached their destination ;
the rest were driven back or wrecked.

Eed Eric, to put it mildly, showed no pedantic regard

124 LIFE OF FPvIDTIOF NA^'SEN

for the truth. He ought rather to have called the country
' Great Iceland ; ' for while there are very few green spots in
Greenland, there are not many places on earth which so
superabound in ice.

It is a strange land. Until within the last few years we
did not know much more about it than our forefathers
knew 900 years ago. We Scandinavians may congratulate
ourselves on the fact that this increase in the world's know-
ledge is for the most part due to us — to explorations
conducted by Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes.

Greenland, as we may now conclude with every proba-
bility, is an island, the largest in the world, having an area
of from 1|- to 2 million square kilometres. It is thus two
and a half times as large as jS'ew Guinea and Borneo, three
times as large as Madagascar. It is a long and narrow land
covering about 23 degrees of latitude (roughly speaking,
1,700 miles) from the southern point. Cape Tarewell, which
lies almost exactly in the latitude of Christiania, to the north-
ern point which was reached by Lockwood in 1882, and was
sighted by Peary and Astrup in 1892. Though more than
twice as laro'e as Xorwav and Sweden tocrether, it is in-
habited by only a little over 10,000 people, who, with the
utmost difficulty, support life by fishing and seal-hunting.
There is an average of one man to every 200 square kilo-
metres. The Sahara and the Desert of Gobi are not more
sparsely populated.

Thus Greenland, in spite of Eed Eric's euphemism, is one
of the most barren regions on earth, an immitigable waste,
where no artesian wells, no artificial appliances whatever,
are of any avail. It is an ice desert, ' The Sahara of the
North.'

But, as we have said, until a few years ago we had

GEEENLAXD 125

no clear conception of the actual nature of the country.
It was known, especialh^ through the excellent works of the
Director of the Danish colon}^ Dr. Eink, that the coun-
try consists of a narrow coast-line of bare rocky land,
excessively broken up by fiords, and that the heads either
of the fiords themselves, or of the valleys which lead up
from them, are invariably blocked by might}" glaciers, which
in many places extend to the verge of the open sea.
Any one tr3"ing to penetrate from the coast valleys into the
interior of the country is confronted in ever}' case b}^ a sheer
wall of ice ; and on clambering laboriously up this shattered
and rifted ice-wall, the explorer sees nothing beyond but ice,
ice without end, as far as the eye can reach.

It was Eink's clear statement, founded on personal
observations extending over many j^ears, that first led people
to conceive the existence of a country entirely covered bv a
vast ice-crust, to which he gave the name of the Inland Ice.

This information came just at an opportune moment for
science. At that very time — -about the middle of the present
century — people were beginning to grasp the idea that
throughout the whole of JSTorthern Europe and America, the
surface of the earth must at a recent period (geologically
speaking) have been covered with ice, which had left many
traces behind it.

Thus Greenland came to possess an enormous interest
for science as a still extant illustration of the condition of
Northern Europe during the Great Ice Age. And a know-
ledge of this inland ice was of importance not only to the
geologist, but also to the biologist, the meteorologist, and
the geographer. Its thorough investigation was necessary,
as bearing upon a long series of questions of the highest
interest ; not to mention that the universal-human cravins;

126 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

for knowledge could not long tolerate the existence upon the
map of the world of so large a tract of terra incognita.

Thanks in particular to the sacrifices and exertions of
the Danes, the narrow coast-line of Greenland has now been
pretty thoroughly mapped, and examined from the geological
point of view — first the west coast, from Cape Farewell
northwards, and afterwards the east coast, which the drift-
ice from the polar sea renders much more difiicult of access.
In 1875 Prof. Johnstrup issued a proposal for a systematic
geological and geographical investigation of Greenland ; and,
from 1876 onwards, a number of Danish explorers have
quietly carried on this arduous and admirable work in the
cause of science, the results being for the most part pub-
lished from time to time in the excellent Meddelelser om
Gronland (' Eeports from Greenland'). Special mention
must be made in this connection of the geologist, K. J. Y,
Steenstrup, who spent eight summers and five winters in
Greenland ; and also of J. A. D. Jensen, E. E. I. Hammer,
C. H. Eyder, G. F. Holm, V. Garde, and A. Kornerup. In
this way the Danes have systematically explored, and for
the most part charted, the west coast, right up to their
most northern colonies, Upernivik and Tessiusak (about 73°
IST. lat.). The country to the north, along Melville Bay and
Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, and Eobeson
Channel, has for the most part been explored by English and
American Arctic Expeditions, which have here reached the
most northern points upon the globe as yet known to have
been attained by any civilised being. The JSTares Expedition
(1875 76) penetrated as far as 83° 22', and Lieutenant Lock-
wood, a member of the Greely Expedition (1881-84) of
melancholy celebrity, is said to have pushed on as far
as 83° W]

GKEENLAND 127

The east coast of Greenland has also of late years been
systematically explored by the Danes, especially by Holm's
'woman-boat' expedition of 1883-85. For the rest, the
belt of drift ice barricading this almost inaccessible coast
has been broken through for investigation only at scattered
points — in particular by the Sabine, Scoresb}^, and Koldewey
Expeditions, by the Hansa Expedition, and the Swedish >S(9p^zV6
Expedition. Thus there are still great stretches of this coast
of which we know very little. For instance, between Cape
Bismarck (about 77° N. lat.) and Independence Bay (about
81^° JST. lat.), explored by Peary and Astrup in 1892, there
are only two points where land has been descried, and that
more than a hundred years ago (1770 and 1775).

It may be said, then, that we are now acquainted in
broad outline with the coasts of this remarkable country.
They are not everywhere equally inhospitable ; yet it must
on the whole be described as a land where only an extremely
easily contented race of men are able, with the utmost toil,
to support life without extraneous help. The narrow strip
of land along the entire coast of Greenland is wild, naked,
and rocky. While the country is more than 800 miles wide,
the ice-free coast strip very rarely (as at Holstenborg) extends
to so much as 100 miles. As a rule it is only a mile or two
in width, and in many places the glaciers stretch right down
to the sea. The outer edge of the coast has a flora consisting
of lichen, moss, and sedge. Far up the long fiords of the
south-west coast may be found scanty copses of willow,
dwarf birch, and juniper ; and in the colonies on this coast,
cabbages, radishes, carrots, and parsley are grown — indeed,
in favourable summers, in the south, one may even hope for
a little crop of green peas. But no forest tree grows on this
coast, no corn ripens.

128 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

In miserable huts of earth and stones, some 10,000
Greenland Eskimos manage to support life on the coasts of
this country, carrying on a desperate struggle for existence
by means of seal- and whale-hunting and fishing. They are
kindly, amiable, children of nature, who, like all such races,
must inevitably be exterminated by the benefactions of
civilisation, which are quite unsuited to them. All travellers
are agreed that the Greenlanders love their poor, barren
country, and we do not find that they seek to better their
condition by emigration.

In its own way it is a fine country, with a wild and
stately natural beauty, not easily to be equalled. It is true
that wild mountain forms, with jagged peaks and pinnacles
and deep narrow fiords, are to be found in abundance in
Norway, which, indeed, especially in the wild mountain dis-
tricts of Kordland and along the Vestfiord, bears no small
resemblance to Greenland. But in Greenland the mountains
are loftier and much more barren right down to the coast ;
and not only do whales and seals abound in the fiords, but
also swarms of icebergs formed by the ' calving ' of the
glaciers. And then the glaciers themselves ! We have
glaciers, too ; but in comparison with those of Greenland the
mightiest of them is as a little brook to the Amazon or the
Nile.

We talk about the Folgefonn, the Justedal glacier or
the Svartisen glaciers ; they are dwarfs and pigmies com-
pared to the Jakobshavn glacier, to say nothing of the Hum-
boldt glacier, which has a frontage on Kane Basin of some-
thing like seventy miles.

By day and by night, through summer and winter, year
out and year in, these innumerable glaciers glide off on
every side, as outlets for the inland ice ; and they travel at

GEEENLAND 129

no such a slow pace either. Whereas Sexe found the rate
of the Buar oiacier's advance to be about one-tenth of a
metre in the twenty-four hours, Helland ascertained that
the Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland travels twenty metres
in the same space of time — that is to say, 200 times as fast.
Eyder, moreover, noted a still higher rate of advance in the
glacier at Augpadlartok, viz. over thirty-one metres in the
twenty-four hours. As rivers, with us, form outlets for
lakes, so these numerous and might}'' glaciers or ice-rivers
round the entire coast of Greenland form outlets for the
inland ice.

It is no small quantity of ice that these frozen rivers
carry to the sea. The bulk of ice which is ' calved ' or thrown
off by the glaciers has been estimated by Eink at more than
300 million cubic metres annually ; and this is certainly an
understatement ; perhaps ten times that amount would be
nearer the truth. It was supposed in Eink's time that the
glaciers on the west coast were the main channels by which
the inland ice disgorged itself into the sea ; whereas Holm's
* woman-boat' expedition along the east coast (1883-85)
has shown that the reverse is the case, the main outlets
being to the east.

The atmosphere of the Greenland coast is cold, raw, and
moist. The sea along the rocky shore is full of ice the
whole year round, some of it consisting of icebergs given off
by the glaciers, and the rest of drift-ice from the Polar
sea, carried down the east coast of Greenland by a mighty
current, which then doubles Cape Farewell, and follows the
line of the west coast northwards. The mean temperature
here is accordingly far lower than that usually found in
these latitudes. The country is not only sea-girt but ice-
girt. It is the land of the Great Ice, covered by the

130 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

misflitiest ice-field hitherto known on the northern hemi-
sphere, extending perhaps to more than 1,500,000 square
kilometres.

One would imagine that the Greenlanders themselves
would have found it to their interest, or would have been
driven by necessity, to acquaint themselves with the vast
uplands of ice which glide seawards in the form of glaciers
along their entire coast. This, however, is not the case.
The Greenlandeic himself has a superstitious terror of the
inland ice. It is the home of his evil spirits, his ghosts, his
apparitions and shades {tarajuatsiak), his trolls [timersek and
erkilik), his ice-men, who are supposed to be twice as tall as
ordinary people, and a whole host of other supernatural
beings. Besides, what should he do there ? His life is a
continual fight for food, and on the inland ice there is
neither whale nor seal, neither reindeer nor ptarmigan — in
short, no animal fit for food. It is a lifeless desert.

We need not wonder, then, that the Greenlanders them-
selves have scarcely any knowledge of the inland ice ; and
until a few years ago the rest of the world was equally
ignorant.

It is clear, nevertheless, that our forefathers were very
well acquainted with the nature of the country. We read
in the KongesjJeil (' The Mirror of Kings ') : ' But as to your
question whether the land is free from ice, or covered with
ice like the sea, then you must know that there is a small
portion of the land w^hich is bare of ice, but all the rest is
covered w^ith it.'

This knowledge of the interior, however, had been lost
in the lapse of centuries, and had given place to the most
extravagant notions, based upon anything in the world
except actual observation.

GREENLAND 131

As early as 1728 a vain attempt to reach the inland ice
was made by Major Hans Enevold Paars ; but the first man
we know of who really crossed the edge, though indeed the
edge only, of the inland ice, was a Danish merchant, Lars
Dalager, who had settled at the colony of Frederikshaab in
South Greenland. In September 1752 he made his way a
few miles inland over the ice, accompanied by a Green-
lander with his daughter, and three young unmarried
Eskimos. They suffered horribly from the cold the last night,
and were obliged to turn back for lack of provisions, and
because their shoes had utterly gone to pieces on the way.
Looking from a lofty pinnacle (called by the natives a
nunatak) on the edge of the inland ice, Dalager saw it
stretching, in the form of a level waste of ice and snow, far
as the eye could reach. He regarded it as impossible for
any human being to reach the opposite coast alive, partly
because of the difficulty of conveying sufficient provision for
such a march, partly because the cold at night was so
intense that, in his opinion, any one who had to pass many
nights on the ice must inevitably freeze to death. JSTansen's
experience of the temperature of the inland ice unexpectedly
confirmed Dalager's observation, though fortunately not his
prophecy.

A hundred years elapsed before any other serious
attempt was made to explore the inland ice. It was
the American Arctic traveller, J. J. Hayes, who first
tried to penetrate any considerable distance into the bar-
ren ice-desert. Hayes and five other men (among them
a Dane, C. Petersen) made their way up ' Brother John's
Glacier,' which runs out from the inland ice near Port
Foulke, on Whale Sound, in about 78J-° N. lat. The ice-
journey began on October 23, 1860. According to their

132 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

own estimate, in the course of three days' travelling they
penetrated at least sixty miles into the interior, and had
reached a height of about 5,000 feet, when a tremendous
storm compelled them to turn back. The temperature, at
their turning-point, was very low for the season of the year
■ — viz. —37° C. (—35° Fahr.). It is, however, very doubtful
whether, over a surface so terribly broken as he describes,
Hayes can have covered so much as sixty miles in three daj^s.

Another quite unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the
inland ice was made in the same year by the English
traveller, John Eae.

In 1867 the well-known English mountaineers, Whymper
and Brown, were commissioned by the Eoyal Society to
make another attempt. They started from Jakobshavn, but
met with no success. The season of the year (July 26) was
unfavourable, as the heat had melted all the snow along the
outer ridge of the inland ice, so that the ice itself was laid
bare, and furrowed with millions of clefts and crevasses,
which proved impassable. They were therefore obliged to
turn back, after vain exertions, entirely baffled. They had
taken several Greenlanders with them, who were very much
alarmed, before the expedition set out, because one of them
thought he had seen three men moving on the ice, who
were taken to be either shades of the old I^orsemen or
Eskimo ghosts. We may conclude, then, that the natives
were not particularly courageous or valuable members of
such an expedition.

The first at all successful attempt to penetrate the inland
ice — successful in so far that a considerable distance was
covered and important scientific results obtained — was that
undertaken by Professor Nordenskiold and Dr. Berggren in
1870. Their point of departure was the southern arm of

GREENLAND 133

the Aulaitsivik Fiord (681° IST. lat.), a little south of the
colonj^ of Kristianshaab. The ice was reached and attacked
on July 19. Taking no tent, but only a sleeping-bag and
a sledge for their provisions and other necessaries, the
intrepid explorers set off on their perilous march. The
sledge had soon to be abandoned, since the numberless clefts
and crevasses made it impossible to drag it along. So they
took with them only what they could carry in their knap-
sacks. Two Greenlanders accompanied them until the
morning of the 22nd, but would go no further. Norden-
skiold and Berggren went on alone, with their knapsacks on
their backs, for two days more, and then turned back, at a
height of 2,200 feet above the sea, after having penetrated
between thirty-five and forty miles from the edge of the ice.
The great elevation of the point at which they turned
enabled them to see an immense distance over the interior
of the country. They could descry nothing but the endless
ice-field sloping evenly upwards to the east, so that the
horizon was bounded by an ice-rim almost as unbroken as
that of the sea. After two days' forced march they got
back to the fiord and their boat on the night of July 26.

Eight years passed before the next noteworthy attempt
was made to explore the inland ice, this time by an
expedition despatched by the Danish Government, under
the conduct of Lieutenant J. A. D. Jensen, of the royal navy.
His party consisted of the promising young Danish geologist,
A. Kornerup, who died three years later, Herr Groth,
an architect, and, lastly, a Greenlander named Habakuk.
The expedition was conducted with much energy and skill,
and its scientific results were in many respects considerable.
In proportion to the time occupied and the labours and
dangers undergone, they did not succeed in making their

134: LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

way very far over the inland ice, properly so called. The}''
■were impeded by a series of unfortunate circumstances. On
the one hand, the weather was particularly unfavourable, and
the expedition suffered from frequent and protracted snow-
storms and fogs ; and on the other hand, the ice in the region
attacked was so extraordinarily rugged and rifted, that they
could only with the utmost difficulty make any progress at
all. By the light of later experience, we can now see that the
starting-point was unfortunately chosen, since the expedition
had to traverse the longitudinal axis of one of the furthest
projecting tongues of ice, that which ends in the 'Frederiks-
haab Isblink,' at about 62^° N. lat., between FiskeruEes
and Frederikshaab, It was only to be expected that the ice
of this protruding tongue of glacier should be particularly
broken and dangerous. Nevertheless, the expedition,
setting out on July 14, after ten days of indescribable toil
and difficulty, reached a range of bare and rocky peaks,
projecting above the snowfield about twenty-six miles from
its edge, which were called after the leader of the party,
Jensen's Nunataks. At the foot of one of these nunataks
the explorers were overtaken by a snowstorm, which lasted
an entire week, during which they had to keep to their
tent. The worst of it was that their stock of provisions was
extremely scanty, so that each man received onl)^ a daily
ration of about -| kg. — about -I- of the usual allowance upon
such exhausting expeditions. Their cooking apparatus, too,
proved useless, and the canvas shoes of the whole party
had quite gone to pieces. The prospects of the expedition
were thus anything but bright. Finally, on the seventh
day, the weather cleared. From the top of the nunatak, at
a height of about 4,960 feet, Jensen looked eastward over
the interior of the country. The endless expanse of the

GREENLAND 135

inland ice stretched around him on all sides, rising higher
and higher to the eastward, as far as the eye could see, until
it melted into the sky at the horizon. The return journey,
too, was excessively difficult and dangerous, JSTot until
three weeks after their departure did the expedition regain
their starting-place, where the Greenlanders who were
waiting for them had lonoj ao-o besfun to doubt whether
they should ever see them again.

According to Greenland legend, the interior of the
country was supposed to be free from ice ; indeed, the
theory of an ice-free interior, and the desire to demon-
strate it, had been the motive of some of the earlier
expeditions — for instance, of Whymper and Brown's
attempt in 1867. Baron A. E. Nordenskiold, the great
pioneer of systematic Polar investigation, so far as Scandi-
navia is concerned, after his first journey on the inland ice in
1870, had undertaken a whole series of Arctic expeditions—
to Spitzbergen, including an examination of the north-east
•glacier district, in 1872-73 ; to Nova Zembla and the
.Yenisei in 1875 ; again to the mouth of the Yenisei in
1876; and, finally, the great circumnavigation of Asia on
board the Vega in 1878-79. He now, with the support
of the eminent physicist, Professor Edlund, advanced an
hypothesis as to the probability of an ice-free interior of
Greenland ; and this hypothesis was, to some extent, the
occasion of the great Swedish expedition, at the head of
which Nordenskiold set forth once more over the inland ice^
this time better equipped than on his first attempt in 1870,
which had, never thele.ss, produced such valuable results.
The expedition, the whole expense of which was borne by
Baron Oscar Dickson,^ had its own steamship, the Sophia,
and was in all respects excellently fitted out.

^ This was the seventh Arctic expedition financed by Baron Dickson.

136 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

This time, too, Nordenskiold chose for his point of depar-
ture the region south of Kristianshaab, or, more precisely,
the head of the northern branch of the Aulaitsivik Fiord at
about 68^° IST. lat. In the actual journey over the ice, only
nine men took part besides Nordenskiold himself, among
them two Lapps, named Lars Tuorda and Anders Eossa.
The start was made on July 7, again at the very mildest
season of the year. They thus escaped the excessively low
temperature which prevails at a later season upon the inland
ice ; but, on the other hand, the labour of making their way
with hand-sledges and baggage through the half-melted
slush was so much the greater. After advancing for
fourteen days, they found it utterly impossible to drag the
hand-sledges any further. They had come upon a plain of
half-melted snow, into which they sank so deep at every
step that there was nothing for it but to turn back. These
fourteen days of strenuous toil had brought them about
seventy-eight miles from the margin of the ice. Early on
the morning of July 22, the two Lapps were sent further
inland on their snowshoes, while the rest awaited their
return. At the end of 57 hours the Lapps came back.
According to their own account, they had pushed on to a
point about 150 miles east of the camp, and to an altitude
of about 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. JSTansen's
subsequent experience, however, has shown it to be highly
improbable that they could have got so far ; he conjectures
that they turned back at a point about fifty miles east of the
camp, and therefore something like 130 miles from the
margin of the ice. At the furthest point they attained, the
Lapps saw only a smooth ice-field before them, covered with
fine loose snow.

The return journey of the expedition was accomplished

GREENLAND 137

without misadventure, and on August 3 it again reached the
margin of the inland ice, after having spent four weeks in
the interior.

Thus the expedition had attained particularly important
results, having pushed farther inland than any previous
expedition. It found no oases in the ice desert ; but it
brought back the important information that the terribly
rugged and rifted surface which the ice had presented to all
previous explorers must be confined to the outer belt of
the inland ice, while the interior consisted for the most part
of an even snow-covered ice-field. JSTordenskiold's expedi-
tion in 1883 was, in fact, the only one which had hitherto
penetrated within this deeply-fissured outer belt, and had
thus definitely ascertained the nature of the surface within it.

Yet another serious attempt to penetrate the interior of
Greenland preceded Hansen's expedition. This was the
daring journey undertaken in 1886, by the afterwards
celebrated traveller Eobert E. Peary, an engineer in the
American navy, and a Dane named Christian Maigaard, an
employe of the Eoyal Danish Greenland Company. Peary's
original idea had been to make use of Greenland dogs and
sledges for the journey ; but at the last moment, the Green-
landers hired to accompany them refused to do so, and took
themselves off with their dogs and sledges. There was
nothing for it, then, but to start on foot and alone, dragging
the provisions and other necessaries on two light sledges
which they had brought with them. In order to lighten
their baggage, they took no tent, but only a tarpaulin, under
which they slept in the lee of the sledges. Sometimes, too,
they built themselves snow-huts. They began the ascent of
the ice on June 28, and continued their eastward march,
with several interruptions on account of the weather, till

138 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

July 19, when they found themselves, as they calculated,
about 110 miles from the margin of the inland ice, and at a
height of about 7,500 feet above the sea. For a consider-
able distance they had been able to use the snowshoes they
had brought with them ; for the surface of the ice, except in
the outer zone, was particularly even and covered with dry
snow, the temperature (for they travelled at night, and slept
by day) being for the most part under freezing-point. On
the return journey they tied the sledges together and rigged
up the tarpaulin as a sail, and in this fashion, during the
first three days and nights, they sailed at a spanking rate
about forty-five geographical miles. They reached their
camp on the morning of July 24, having spent twenty-three
days and nights on the ice.

No previous expedition had, with such simple equipment
and at so little expense, achieved such excellent results as
this first Peary expedition, which may with justice be said to
have been admirably planned and admirably executed.

The u±na.ost limits of "the laixd-ice in Europe duriixg tlie Great Ice Age .

139

GHAPTEE IX

THE GEEAT ICE AGE

When the Scandinavian peasant is working his land lie
finds, too often, alas ! that it is full of stones. Great
boulders are strewn over his fields, generally of such size
that it does not pay to remove them, so that the plough has
simply to pass them by. Here and there blocks occur as
large as a good-sized house. If the peasant has an eye for
varieties of rock, he will most likely observe that these
■boulders are of quite another kind of stone from that of the
neighbouring mountains ; and this will often be the case
even when the boulder rests upon the native bed-rock.

These stones upon the earth's surface are, therefore,
guests from afar, foreign immigrants ; they are ' erratic
blocks ' — the name was a:iven them lonsf before their oriein
was understood — which have in many cases come from a
great distance. Erratic boulders are found all over JN^orway,
Sweden, and Denmark, and down through North Germany to
a line which runs a little south of Leipzic. But there they
stop.

At Llltzen in Saxony, where Gustavus Adolphus fell,
there lies a might}'' granite boulder of this descri^Dtion, which is
called 'The Swedish Stone.' This name, which commemo-
rates the victory of the Swedes, the science of our century
has shown to be justified in a different sense ; for the boulder,
an alien in that environment, is in reality a piece of Swedish

140 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

granite, and must at some former time liave been transported
from Sweden to Saxony.

The study of erratic boulders led little by little to tlie
study of gravel and loose strata in general. It was thus
ascertained that enormous quantities of Finnish rock are
scattered over the low plains of Northern Eussia, especially
in the Baltic provinces, while masses of Swedish rock
bestrew the plains of JSTorth Germany and the Danish
Islands, and hosts of Norwegian boulders are scattered over
Northern Jutland, the north-west corner of Grermany,
Holland, and even over the east coast of England.

Indeed, we can now go further than this. The whole
North European plain, with all its different strata of gravel
and earth, is for the most part built up of material which
has been transported thither, at one time or another,
from Finland and the Scandinavian peninsula. The fertile
Danish meadows are in this sense composed of Swedish and
Norwegian earth. The myth of Gefion, who transplanted
the island of Zealand from the place where Lake Wener
now lies, is not so entirely meaningless after all.

What manner of force is it which has removed all these
masses of stone and gravel, and scattered them over the
plains ?

According to popular legend, it was trolls and giants
who amused themselves by these feats of strength ; we, at the
present day, know that the trolls were the forces of nature
herself. When science first began to inquire into these
matters, it was thought that water was the force which had
moved the erratic boulders and scattered such enormous
masses of gravel and stone and earth broadcast over the
plains. A mighty flood — a deluge — was supposed to have
swept over mountain and valley, and torn away, and carried

THE GREAT ICE AGE 141

along witli it over the lowlands, gigantic quantities of rock
and rubble. At first, therefore, geologists applied the name
diluvium to the deposits of this hypothetical deluge — a term
which is employed by many to this day.

It has long been ascertained, however, that there never
was a deluge in this sense, and in particular that the sedi-
mentary strata of Northern Europe have nothing in the
world to do with the Biblical ' flood,' which was doubtless a
quite local occurrence — an inundation of the plains watered
by the Euphrates and the Tigris.

Then people began to connect the dispersion of the
gravel and soil over the plains with the fact, which science
had by this time demonstrated, that the Scandinavian
peninsula must formerly have been covered with ice, as
Greenland is now. They conjectured that the erratic
boulders and gravel strata were transported from Scan-
dinavia, and scattered over the plains, by drift-ice and float-
ing icebergs which had ' calved ' in the Norwegian or
Swedish fiords, and were then driven southwards, freighted
with gravel and stones, across the lowlands of Northern
Europe, which were conceived as lying at that time entirely
under water. In the course of melting, the icebergs would
then deposit the rubble they had brought with them, just as
the floating icebergs from Greenland deposit their masses of
rubble in the sea between Cape Farewell and the banks of
Newfoundland.

It is now known that this explanation (although it has
still a certain number of adherents) is quite insufficient to
account for the composition of the soil on the plains of
Northern Europe. The only tenable theory is that the
erratic boulders have been deposited where we now find
them by glacier-ice. Their present position (together with a

142 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAJSTSEN

long series of other circumstances which cannot here be
entered into) testifies that the surface of the country must
have been covered with glacier-ice, even where we now find
neither glaciers nor snow-fields.

By the close of the 'fifties, geologists had incontrovertibly
proved that the ground-rock of the Scandinavian peninsula
must at one time have been covered by an unbroken sheet
of ' land ice.' On this point the evidence afforded by the
present state of Greenland was of decisive value. Ever}^-
where in Norway, Sweden, and Finland are found striated
(ice-scratched) mountains and smooth roches moutonnees, just
as in the lower part of the Greenland coast belt. We have
everywhere, at our very doors, so to speak, ancient rubble-
banks, moraines, left behind by the land-ice, just as we find
them to this day along the margin of the land-ice in Green-
land. The configuration, too, of the mountains and valleys
of ISTorway, and of the fiords and skerries of Norway and
Sweden^ has been recognised by degrees as analogous to that
of the mountains, fiords, and skerries of Greenland, and has
been found explicable only on the assumption that the
whole of Scandinavia was at one time covered, as Greenland
is to-day, by a vast sheet of land ice.

But from the beginning of the 'eighties (or, properly
speaking, as early as the beginning of the 'seventies) it
came to be recognised that we could not stop at this point.
The Swedish geologists in particular, and especially Pro-
fessor Torell, have shown that the North European land
ice — unlike the Greenland ice-sheet, which is now surrounded
by an ice-free coast belt — was not confined to the Scandi-
navian peninsula. On the contrary, it may now be regarded
as sufficiently demonstrated, through the investigations of
the past twenty-five years, that the enormous masses of

THE GREAT ICE AGE 143

gravel which cover, and for the most part conceal, the bed-
rock of the entire North European plain, have in the main
been deposited by a continuous ice-sheet, which at one time
spread over the whole of Northern Europe.

Here, then, we come upon a much larger phenomenon
than that presented by Greenland ; perhaps the parallel in
this case should rather be sought in the condition of things
at the South Pole, if Murray is right in conjecturing that
where we formerly assumed the existence of a sea, we shall
more probabl}^ find a huge ice-covered continent, perhaps
ten to twelve million square kilometres in extent.

The North European land ice must in the same way,
when at its fullest development, have arched over the whole
of Northern Europe like a mighty shield of ice and snow.
Over Scandinavia it must have attained a thickness of at
least 3,000 feet, and more probably twice as much. Hence
the ice-sheet stretched west, south, and east — covering, with-
out a break, the whole of the North Sea, Scotland, and
the greater part of England and Ireland, and reaching out
into the Atlantic, to where the bed of the ocean shelves to
vast depths — enshrouding Holland, North Germany, and
Denmark — and spreading over the entire Baltic, the Gulf of
Bothnia, the Baltic provinces, and a long way south over
the Eussian steppes. The thickness of the ice-sheet must
have diminished towards the south, but even so far south as
the region where Berlin now stands, its depth was probably
about 1,300 feet.

The limit of this enormous expanse of North European
land ice at the time of its greatest extent (according to the
most recent observations) is indicated on the accompanying
map, which is based in essentials on Professor James Geikie's
work on The Great Ice Age (1894).

144 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

The boundary runs, as we see, across the south of
England, the northern part of Belgium, the Hartz mountains,
alono' the northern edo-e of the Erze'ebiro;e and the Car-
pathians, north of Lemberg in Galicia, and then in a great
tongue south of Kief in Eussia, after which it forms another
tongue to the west of the Volga, and then trends away to
the west of the river Kama, and northwards to the Polar Sea.
The area of this enormous ice desert must have been not
less than about five million square kilometres.

While Northern Europe lay under this vast ice mantle,
the Eiesengebirge, the Alps, the Jura, the Vosges, the Black
Forest, the Caucasus, the Pyrenees, and other mountain
ranges were also covered by enormous local glaciers.

Even more gigantic than the European land ice was
(according to Chamberlin) the land ice of North America.
Here the immense Laurentian glacier covered with its desert
of ice five-sixths of Eastern Canada, besides the greater
part of the sixteen most northerly States of the Union,
extending on the east side to below ISFew York, and in the
middle of the Continent still farther south (in Illinois to
37° 35^ N. lat.).

A separate ice sheet extended, in the far west, over great
stretches of the North American Cordilleras, from about the
48th degree of latitude, upwards towards the Polar Sea,
where it may possibly have joined the Laurentian ice sheet.

Oddly enough, it is supposed by many that Alaska has
never been covered with ice.

Besides the two main ice sheets (the Laurentian and the
Cordillera), which are supposed to have been separated
towards the south by an ice-free region, there existed in
North America, no less than in Europe, great local glaciers,
•especially in the mountain districts to the south of the

THE GREAT ICE AGE 145

Cordillera land ice. The entire area of the North American
ice fields is estimated at over ten million square kilometres,
thus nearly corresponding in size to the ice-crust which,
according to Murray's conjecture, now covers the Antarctic
Continent.

As regards Northern Asia, no positive evidence has yet
been found of any land ice having covered the flat sea-
board of North Siberia. Quite recently, however. Baron
von Toll found in Anabara Bay and on the New Siberia
Islands indications that these regions, too, may possibly
have been covered by a tolerably extensive, though perhaps
not particularly massive, land ice. Baron von Toll conjec-
tures that the Polar regions were at that time elevated
above the sea, and that thus the rainfall must have been
greater — sufiicient, indeed, to cause the formation of an
extensive ice sheet. He further supposes that after the
glacial epoch these regions must have sunk and become
submerged, and that the succession of islands to the north of
Asia (the New Siberia Islands, SannikofF Land, and pre-
sumably other islands as yet undiscovered) must be simply
the summits of the vanished Arctic continent.

In the ocean between Europe and America local ice
fields covered the Faroe Islands and Iceland.

Greenland, which, as we know, has to this day its land
ice (with an area of about 1^ million square kilometres)
must at one time have been totally buried in ice, or at all
■events to a considerably greater extent than at present.
Many suppose that the Greenland ice sheet extended over
EUesmere Land and Grinnell Land, and joined the Lauren-
tian land-ice ; but this is not certain. If, as Yon Toll
thinks, there existed at that time an immense Polar continent
covered with ice, which extended over North Siberia, it is

146 LIFE OF FETDTIOF NANSEN

probable that this circumpolar land ice also extended south-
ward over Greenland. As yet, however, the evidence on
these points is inconclusive.

It is curious to picture to oneself the aspect of JN^orthern
Europe and North America at the time when these condi-
tions obtained. The accepted theory is that at all events
Scandinavia and large portions of North America were,
during a part of this period, much more elevated above
the level of the sea than they are to-day. The greater
altitudes would in that case contribute not a little to the
formation of the mighty ice sheets. Certain it is that along
the whole North Atlantic, from the latitude of New York,
and on the European side from the south of England and
Ireland, there then stretched northwards a continuous ice
cliff or ice wall, probably hundreds of yards in height,
from which great icebergs were perpetually breaking loose
and floating away to sea, just as they to-day break off
from the Humboldt Glacier in North Greenland. This ice
wall must have stretched unbroken, right up to the Polar
Sea, until it merged in the Arctic land ice.

Within the ice rim stretched an interminable desert of
ice and snow with no trace of life, smooth as a convex
shield, from Ireland to the Ural Mountains (at least), and
from the Polar Sea to the foot of the Carpathians. The
boundaries of land and sea in Northern Europe were totally
obliterated by the vast ice field, just as to-day no one
has the faintest idea what is concealed under the interior
expanse of the Greenland ice.

Outside the ice rim a climate prevailed somewhat like
that of Spitzbergen at the present day. In France, Central
Europe, and Hungary, the reindeer, the Polar fox, the
musk-ox and other Arctic animals flourished along with the

THE GREAT ICE AGE 147

mammoth, the elephant of the Ice Age [Elephas primigenius),
which was much larger than any existmg variety of elephant,
and had a thick long-haired fur to protect it from the cold,
as had also the woolly Rhinoceros tichorhinus. The flora of
Central Europe (now so warm and genial, the home of the
vine and the walnut-tree) consisted at that time of low wil-
lows, dwarf birch, and other Arctic growths, now found
about the shores of the Polar Sea.

As is proved by the fossil remains of plant and animal
life, regions as far south as Italy had then a cold, raw
climate, and the Mediterranean contained numbers of animals
which have now retreated very much further north.

In the south-eastern portion of Europe, covered, in part
at any rate, by the vast expanse of the land ice, was a great
sea, the Aralo-Caspian — one gulf of which stretched right up
to Kasan, while another extended far into Asia. It was also
connected with the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The
Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea are the remnants of this
great basin, and still contain animal forms derived from the
time when the Aralo-Caspian was a salt-water sea.

In the interior of Asia, even far to the south, the climate
was rainy and raw, and a vast inland sea was formed, almost
as large as the Mediterranean, covering the present Tarim
basin and Desert of Gobi. At the same time the Himalayas
and other great mountain ranges were buried in ice.

Even as far south as Africa, the climate must have been
chill and rainy, and great portions of the present Sahara and
of the regions about Lake Tchad presumably formed the
bed of an extensive inland sea.

The condition of things in Europe was reproduced in
America. Here, too, beyond the domain of the ice, a raw
and cold Arctic climate prevailed. Here, too, there existed —

148 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

at least during a part of this period — a series of vast inland
seas, such as Lake Bonneville (about 400 miles in length),
of which the Great Salt Lake in Utah may be regarded as
the last remnant, Lake Lahontan, in north-eastern JSTevada,
and several others.

Eecent investigations have rendered it extremely proba-
ble that not only has there been one such glacial epoch, but
that, between the tertiary period and the present geological
era, several glacial epochs (a long series, according to some)
must have intervened.

Certain it is that after this enormous extension of the
land ice over Northern Europe and North America (and
portions, at any rate, of Northern Asia and the Arctic
regions) there followed a period when the climate became
milder and the ice melted away little by little. How far its
boundaries shrank to the northward no one knows for cer-
tain, but it is beyond question that the whole of the North
European plain lay bare of ice. Many suppose that it even
disappeared entirely from Scandinavia, while others main-
tain that it receded only from the southern districts. It is
not improbable that the shrinkage of the ice sheet was in
some way connected with a subsidence of the land surface
throughout extensive regions (such as Scandinavia), during
the preceding epoch. In many parts of Central Europe are
found deposits dating from this period, which show that, after
the ice crust had vanished, the climate became quite warm
and genial. A host of southern animals and plants
wandered by degrees into the regions where formerly the
ice sheet had held all life at bay. The surface of the
country was clothed with forests of the deciduous trees which
now flourish in England and Central Europe, and of still
more southern varieties. The hippopotamus, rhinoceros.

THE GREAT ICE AGE 149

and elephant [Elephas antiquus) migrated northward. In
all probability there existed at that time a bridge of land
from Africa to Europe by way of Pantellaria and Sicily,
whereby these tropical varieties of animal life found
their way to the continent of Europe and even, by means
of a land-bridge over the channel, to England. And
together with these more southern animals lived the Irish
elk, the aurochs, and other now extinct species. Every-
thing indicates that the climate in Europe was at that time
mild, possibly even milder than it is now ; and the same may
be said of America. In course of time, however, the
climate changed again, and became colder and colder.
Again, from the mountains of Scandinavia, a mighty ice
mantle crept downwards by degrees over the North Sea, the
Baltic, and JSTorthern Europe. This was the second great
extension of the land ice, the second glaciation. This time
the ice did not reach so far south ; but the extreme boun-
daries of the second glaciation of Northern Europe are not
yet clearly ascertained. Many believe that this time almost
the whole of England lay without the glacial area, and that
on the continent its boundary ran in a sort of curve from
Hamburg to a little south of Berlin, and then on by Warsaw
to the east of St. Petersburg, until it reached the White Sea,
west of Archangel.

This renewed extension of the land ice was, of course,
again accompanied by a raw, cold climate. Again the
reindeer, and even more peculiarly Arctic forms of animal
life, roamed the Central European plains ; again the
forests died out, and dwarf birch and willow took their
place.

In America, too, evidence has been found of a fresh
extension of the land ice on a great scale ; but here, as in

150 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NATs^SEN

Europe, it probably did not extend so far south as during
the first glacial epoch.

Both in Europe and in America, then, we find evidences
of two great glacial epochs,^ two glaciations, during which
gigantic ice sheets extended far southward, to regions where
a mild and temperate climate now prevails. Moreover, so
far as Central Europe, at any rate, is concerned, evidences
are found of a temperate interim — an inter-glacial period —
between these two Arctic eras.

It is clear, of course, that this repeated spreading and
shrinking of the land ice must have been a result of climatic
changes. But such radical changes as those here involved
must have taken place very slowly, and covered enormous
stretches of time. Each of these glacial epochs, as well as
the temperate inter-glacial period, must therefore have lasted
many thousands, or rather many tens of thousands of years.
As the climatic changes no doubt went on imperceptibly
during endless spaces of time (from the human point of
view), so, too, the accompanying changes in fauna and flora,
the accompanying flux and reflux of the land ice, must have
proceeded by equally imperceptible degrees through thou-
sands of years. The evidences of these climatic changes and
the accompanying changes in the aspect of the world — at one
time a lifeless desert, at another a luxuriant forest rich in
animal life of now extinct tropical forms — are stored up in
the strata of the earth's crust, with their animal and vege-
table remains. Geologists have laboriously investigated
sections of stratified soil and gravel, now laid bare by river
or brook, now by the construction of a road or railway, and
have accumulated in the course of years an enormously rich

' The first has been called the Kansas Period, the second the Iowa Period,
these states marking the southern boundaries of each, respectively.

THE GREAT ICE AGE 151

store of observations, in which, the history of long-vanished
periods can be read. These apparently insignificant layers
of earth are the geologist's parchments and papyri, or, if
they are for a time less easily decipherable, let ns say his
cuneiform inscriptions, from which he has to spell out the
history of the glacial epochs.

As the sort of rock of which an erratic boulder consists
is often sufficient to tell us whence it has come, so the gravel
strata in Central Europe often show by their formation that
they are moraines^sometimes terminal moraines, swept
forward by the outer edge of an advancing glacier, some-
times ground moraines, or in other words such layers of
rubble as we know can only have been formed underneath a
vast ice crust.

In many places in Central Europe there have been found,
above ground moraines, strata containing bones of the
lemming, Polar fox, reindeer, musk ox, wolverine, wolf,
ermine, Polar hare, snow owl, &c,, precisely the animals
which in our times abound in the Siberian ' tundras ' ; while
in other places, above the rubble of the moraines, vegetable
remains have been discovered belonging to species' now
found in North Siberia and on the shores of the Polar Sea.
Hence we draw the inevitable conclusion that after the land
ice had deposited its moraines and retreated northward from
Central Europe, the surface of the land gradually assumed
the character of a tundra region. Above these tundra
strata, again, are found other strata — of the peculiar sort
of earth to which, in the Ehine Valley, has been given the
name of Loess — containing remains of a rich fauna of animals
peculiar to the steppes : the jumping hare, the jerboa in
several varieties, the German marmot, the saiga antelope,
the wild horse of the steppes (dschwggetai), the steppe lion.

152 LIFE or FRIDTIOF NANSEN

and a great number of steppe rodents, as well as sand grouse^
bustards, &c. ; and together with these animals there still
lived the mammoth. Thus ISTehring's investigations enable
us to conclude with certainty that, after the tundra period in
Central Europe, a period ensued when there was as yet no
great forest growth, when the plains formed a dry grass-
covered steppe, with dust-storms in summer and snowstorms
in winter, like the Asiatic steppes of to-day, and for the most
part with the same fauna and flora as are now found on
those high-lying treeless plateaux of Central Asia.

JSTot till later on did the climate grow steadily milder
and the soil produce a rich forest growth, while the animals
of the steppes withdrew to Central Asia, and were succeeded
by a race of forest animals. Thus do the strata of the
earth, by their formation and by the remains of animal
and vegetable life they contain, record the course of these
slow climatic changes, and bear witness to alternating
glacial and temperate periods.

In this connection there have been few incidents of
greater interest than the discovery of the famous Siberian
mammoths. At several places in ISTorth Siberia there have
been found bodies of the elephant of the Ice Age, the huge
mammoth, with its hide and hair, its great marrow bones
still full of marrow, and the contents of the stomach, con-
sisting of pine-needles, still preserved — even, it is said,
whole frozen mammoths with the soft parts still intact.
Several expeditions, sent out by the Eussian Academy,
and Yon Baer, Fr. Schmidt, and lastly. Baron von Toll,
have succeeded in collecting a rich fund of evidence as
to the conditions under which the mammoth existed. In
many places on the Arctic coast of Siberia, and especially
on the Xew Siberia Islands, Yon Toll found extensive

THE GREAT ICE AGE

15:

deposits of dead ice, or ' stone ice,' whicli he holds to be
nothing else than remains of a great sheet of land ice, which
must once have extended over the whole of Northern Asia
and right to the Pole ; the 'New Siberia Islands and Sanni-
kofF Land being, in his view, relics of a great Polar conti-
nent originally continuous with Asia. His theory is that.

STONE ICE

the climate being sufficiently cold, this ice must have re-
mained unmelted ever since the glacial epoch. And on
the top of the cliffs formed by this stone ice (which on
Great Liakhoff Island, for example, attain a height of over
seventy feet) is found a layer of frozen sand, mud and peat,
with numerous remains of a vegetation, consisting of willow
and alder [alnus fruticosa). Hence we may conclude (if Von

154 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XANSEX

Toll's view of the formation of tlie stone ice is correct) that
up here on the shore of the Polar Sea, at a period subsequent
to that of tlie land ice. there was a chmate so warm that the
willow and alder could flourish in the thin layer of soil
deposited by mud and water on the surface of the stone ice,
3^et not so warm as to melt the ice itself. The northern
limit of vegetation of tliis kind is at present about four
degrees of latitude (300 miles) farther south.

The mammoth, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, the musk
ox, and a great many other Arctic animals flourished simul-
taneously with this vegetation. Animals killed by one
chance or another — perhaps buried in a snowstorm, perhaps
cauo-ht in some crevasse in the stone ice, which was subse-
quently filled with ice or snow — have been preserved for us,
thanks to the constantly increasing severity of the climate,
as butcher's meat is preserved at the present day.

In Scandinavia, too, the mammoth was at home. One
small mammoth tooth found at Yaage in Gudbrandsdal shows
that it must have hved upon an Arctic vegetation in our
mountain districts. The mammoth and the woolly-haired
rhinoceros are now extinct ; but their contemporary, the
musk ox, a living ghost from the glacial epoch, still drags
out his melancholy existence in the most inaccessible regions
of Xorthern Greenland, Grinnell Land, &c.^

The theory that Xorthern Europe, as far south as the
foot of the Carpathians, must have been covered with an
enormous mantle of land ice, in comparison with which even
the Greenland ice sheet sinks into insignificance, was at first
regarded as almost inconceivable, and, as it necessarily

' A section dealing in detail with the geological history of Scandinavia is
omitted. (Trans.)

THE GREAT ICE AGE 155

involved a total reconstruction of the dominant hypotheses,
we cannot wonder that it met with long and fierce opposi-
tion. This opposition may now be considered a thing of the
past, and there is scarcely any further controversy as to the
fact of the glacial epoch, but only as to the precise explana-
tion of the series of climatic changes which we group
together under this common designation. A whole host of
geologists have devoted themselves to the study of these
glacial periods and their effects ; and a vast literature,
including special periodicals, daily contributes to the under-
standing of this remarkable episode in the history of our
planet, which lies close behind us, geologically speaking
(for the geologist reckons time on a great scale), yet which,
until a few years ago, was utterly undreamt of.

Every day that passes adds to our realisation of the all-
pervading significance of the Great Ice Age, until it has
come to be reckoned among the ' critical periods' in the
history of the earth's development, not less than in that of
organic life.

In the first place, the aspect of great tracts of the earth's
surface has undergone essential alteration, both in the old and
the new worlds, through the action of the land ice and its
marginal glaciers. Those fiords and lakes which are the glory
of Norway, her wild alpine peaks, the contours of her valleys,
in short, the whole surface-modelling of the countr}^, has
taken its final stamp from the action of the glaciers of the
Ice Age, and the influence of the concomitant climatic con-
ditions. And over all the low plain of Northern Europe,
from the Danish islands and on to the foot of the Erzgebirge,
the Eiesengebirge, and the Carpathians, the soil virtually
consists of matter transported from the north-east mountain
regions by the action of the ice. Helland has estimated

156 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

that the surface of Scandmavia has been abraded and carried
away to an average depth of about 80 feet from the original
level as it existed at the beginning of the glacial period ;
that is to say, the country has been denuded of a layer 80
feet thick, which, in the form of sand and gravel and mud,
has been deposited in the North Sea and over the North
European plain. When one considers that these enormous
masses of matter were for the most part gouged out, as it
were, by the glaciers as they pursued their course down the
valleys, one can easily understand that the contours of the
valleys, and the very existence of the fiords and the lakes,
must be essentially due to the action of the glaciers of the
Ice Age. It is held, indeed, that fiords, being formed b}^ the
glacial excavation of pre-existing valleys, are to be found
only in countries which have gone through a glacial period.
We know that, before the Ice Age, in the tertiary period, a
temperate climate, comparable with that of Central Europe
and Northern Italy, prevailed in Spitzbergen and Greenland.
Then comes the glacial epoch, and everything is covered
with an interminable ice waste, where no living thing can
possibly exist. Again and again temperate and Arctic
climates alternate, by slow changes extending over (humanly
speaking) endless periods of time. And when the whole
series of alternations has been gone through, Europe and
North America (and perhaps Northern Asia) have essentially
changed their outward aspect, and particularly their fauna
and flora. Before the Ice Age there lived in Europe and
North America a large number of now extinct mammals,
some of them of colossal size : the mastodon, the mammoth,
and other gigantic members of the elephant tribe, extinct
species of hippopotamus and rhinoceros, the elasmotherium,
a huge beast of the rhinoceros type, the Irish elk, huge

THE GEE AT ICE AGE 157

varieties of tlie lion and the bear, and the machairodus, a
ponderous beast of prey with dagger-shaped canine teeth, in
comparison with which even hons and tigers must be
regarded as mild and innocuous creatures. In South
America lived the huge pachydermatous armadillo
{Glyptodon), as big as an ox, an enormous sloth {Mega-
therium), and a multitude of other animals which have not
survived the Ice Age. Wallace may well say : ' We live in
a time in which the most gigantic, majestic, and singular
forms of animal life have disappeared from the earth,'

But one mammal which, before the glacial epoch, had
played no prominent part, although it had probably already
made its appearance — to wit, the species known as man —
survived the glacial epoch, and emerged from it victor over all
the animal kingdom. Man's lordship over nature begins with
the Ice Age, and many hold that it was in reality that period
which made him what he is, and raised him above the brutes.
The hard conditions of life sharpened and developed those
special capabilities which fitted him to endure this series of
climatic changes to which the gigantic animals of the tertiary
period, his most formidable competitors in the struggle for
existence, had gradually to succumb.

It is probable that, geologically speaking, we have as
yet scarcely passed the threshold of this new era in the
existence of the earth, the age of man, the psychozoic
period ; and the course of its further development is hidden
from our e3^es. But we now know, in outline, the manner
of its beginnings ; and the spirit of man, will certainly insist
on knowing, not in outline only, but in all j)0ssible detail,
the history of that age which, even if it did not see the first
man come into existence, at least saw the human race sub-
jugate the earth — the great glacial epoch, the transition

158 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

period between the age of the great mammals and the age
of man, one of the most interesting and important episodes
in the story of the planet. Nor can we stop short at ascer-
taining the mere facts of this period ; we must also insist,
sooner or later, on understanding the causes of this series of
climatic alternations, and fathoming the mystery of those
ice shrouds which killed every living thing wherever their
white expanse unrolled itself over land or sea. There is at
the present moment scarcely any problem for the investi-
gator— whether biologist or geologist — which can be said to
lie nearer at hand, or to impose itself more insistently upon
the inquiring spirit.

One of the first essentials towards the solution of this
problem is a thorough examination of the regions where the
conditions which obtain to-day are similar to those existing
in Europe and North America during the glacial epoch.
In Greenland with its ice mantle we have the closest analogy
to Scandinavia during the first great extension of the land
ice ; and the investigation of the still unknown Polar
regions cannot but furnish us with a whole series of new
and indispensable contributions to the glacial theory.
Herein lies the main significance of such exploits as Nan-
sen's journey across the inland ice of Greenland and his
present expedition to the North Pole. They supply us with
data for the understanding of one of the most important
periods in the earth's histor}^, that which made man the
ruler of the world.

159

CHAPTEE X

NANSEN S GEEENLAND EXPEDITION PEEPAKATIOKS-

EQUIPMENT

-PLAN-

Grieg,

One winter evening
'87,' writes Dr.
I sat in my
den at 3a Parkveien,
absorbed in my work.
Suddenly the door
was flung wide open,
and in stalked ISTansen,
with his long-haired,
badly trained dog
Jenny. Without pre-
tending to be an
authority on the sub-
ject, it is my opinion
that Nansen is too
absent-minded to be
able to train good
sporting dogs. The
evening was cold, so
that even JSTansen had
thrown his plaid over
his shoulders. He sat
down on the sofa just
opposite me.

160 LIFE or FRIDTIOF NANSEN

' " Do you know wliat I'm going to set about now ? " he
said. " I mean to have a try at crossing Greenland." And
he set forth his plans with the aid of my old atlas,
which I shall always associate with the memory of that
evening. He was excited and wrought-up, and, at that
stage, far from being certain, or even hopeful, of finding
things go easily. I saw he wanted objections to discuss,
and I supplied him with what occurred to me, though I
knew nothing of the subject. " It would be easiest to make
the crossing lower down, you understand," he said, " but the
real thing will be to show the world that Greenland can be

crossed so far north as this " and he pointed out where he

had at first planned to start. He little dreamed that this
stretch of coast, which he treated so lightly that evening,
would prove so hard a nut to crack. He said he was going
to Stockholm. " What are you going to do there ? " " To
look up Nordenskiold, and ask him to give me his
opinion of my scheme. I shall just wait to take my doctor's
degree in the spring, and then off to Greenland. It will be
a hard spring, old man, but pooh ! I shall manage it."

'Another friend had meanwhile dropped in. We all
three walked to Skarpsno, we two every-day people making-
feeble objections, he meeting them with increasing warmth
and with youthful emphasis of conviction. He would stake
his life on the plan, and we should see it would all go
smoothly. It was like a revelation, in these decadent days,
to find a man of action ready to lay down his life for his
idea. I was impressed and moved that evening when we
parted.'

He went to Stockholm. It may be noted at this point
that it was in 1886 that Peary and Maigaard, with their
scanty equipment, had made a highly successful inroad

NANSEN'S GREENLAND EXPEDITION 161

upon the Greenland ice field, intended, as Peary had ex-
pressly stated in his brief narrative, merely as a prelimi-
nary reconnaissance. JN^ansen had no time to lose if he did
not want to be anticipated. Moreover, his zoological and
anatomical labours were in the meantime at a standstill.
His great essay on the histological elements of the central
nervous system was finished, and could at any time be
handed in as a thesis for his doctor's degree,

' When, on Thursday, November 3, 1887, I entered my
workroom in the Mineralogical Institute of the Stockholm
High School,' says Prof. Brogger, ' my janitor told me that
there had been a Norwegian . asking for me. He had not
left a card, and did not say who he was. Compatriots
without a name and without a visiting-card were no rarity.
It was no doubt some one wanting me to relieve him from
a momentary embarrassment. What did he look like ?
I said, with a. touch of annoyance.

' " Tall and fair," answered Andersson.

' " Was he well dressed ? "

' " He hadn't any overcoat," said Andersson, smiling
confidentially, " he looked like a sailor, or something of that
sort."

' Ah, yes — a sailor without an overcoat ! No doubt the
idea was that I should supply him with one. I saw it all.

' An hour or two later in came Wille.^ " Have you
seen Nansen ? "

' " Nansen ? Was that the name of the sailor ? The man
without an overcoat ? "

' " Has he no overcoat ? At any rate he's going to
cross the Greenland ice sheet." And Wille rushed off — he
was in a hurry.

^ Now Professor of Botany at Christiania University.

162 LIFE OF FIJIDTIOF NANSEN

' After that comes another of my colleagues, Professor
Lecke, the zoologist. " Have you seen Nansen ? Isn't he a
splendid fellow ? He has been telling me of many interesting
discoveries about the sex of the myxine — and about his
investigations of the nervous system too. Charming things !
Splendid!"

' After all these preliminaries, Nansen at last appeared
in person — tall and erect, broad-shouldered and powerful,
yet with the grace and suppleness of youth. His rather
rough hair was brushed back from his massive forehead.
He came straight up to me and gave me his hand with a
peculiarly winning smile, while he introduced himself.

' " You are going to cross Greenland ? "

' " Well, I'm thinking of it."

' I looked him in the eyes. There he stood with the
kindly smile on his strongly-cut, massive face, his complete
self-confidence awakening confidence in others. Although
his manner was just the same all the time — calm, straight-
forward, perhaps even a little awkward — yet it seemed as if
he grew with every word. This plan — this snow-shoe
expedition from the east coast — which a moment ago I had
regarded as an utterly crazy idea, became, in the course of
that one conversation, the most natural thing in the world.
The conviction possessed me all of a sudden : he will do
this thing, as surely as we are sitting here and talking
about it.

' This man whose name I had never so much as heard
until a couple of hours before,' had in these few minutes —
quite naturally and inevitably as it seemed — made me feel as
though I had known him all my days ; and without reflecting
at all as to how it happened, I knew that I should be proud
and happy to be his friend through life.

NANSEN'S GREENLAND EXPEDITION 163

' "We'll o'o strai2:lit to Nordenskiold," I said ; and we went.
With liis singular dress — a tight-fitting, dark-blue, jerse}'--
like blouse or jacket, closely buttoned up — he did not fail to
attract a certain amount of attention in Drottninggatan
(Queen Street). Gustaf Eetzius, as I heard afterwards, took
him at first for an acrobat or rope-dancer.

' Well, we hunted up Nordenskiold, crossing the quiet,
cloistral quadrangle of the Academy of Science, which has
always something awe-inspiring about it.

' Nordenskiold was in his laboratory, as usual at that
time in the morning. We went through the anterooms filled
with mineralogical specimens and cases. " These used to
be Berzelius's quarters," I remarked to Nansen in passing.
Lindstrom, the Professor's assistant, presently appeared, with
both hands full of retorts and chemicals.

' " The old man is inside ; he's up to his eyes in work,'"
he whispered quietly to me.

' There, in the workroom, " old man Nor " was wandering
around among his minerals. I can never see his strong.
broad back, without thinking of a story in connection, with
his boat expedition up the Yenisei in 1875. At one point,
where the seas repeatedly threatened to swamp the boat,
Nordenskiold took his seat on the after gunwale, and let the
ice-cold waves break on his broad back. There he sat for
hours, doing duty, in a literal sense, as a breakwater. Of
such stuff" are Arctic explorers made.

' I greeted Nordenskiold and performed the introduction.
" Curator Nansen, of Bergen. He intends to cross the
Greenland ice sheet "

' " Good heavens ! "

' " And he would like to consult you upon the matter."

164 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF HANSEN

' " I'm delighted to see him. So ! Mr. Nansen intends to
cross Greenland ? "

' The bombshell had fallen. The friendly, amiable, but
somewhat absent expression he had worn an instant before
had vanished, and his liveliest interest was aroused. He
seemed to be scanning the young man from head to foot, in
order to see what sort of stuff he had in him. Then he
burst out with a twinkle in his eye : " I shall make Mr.
Nansen a present of a pair of excellent boots ! Indeed, I'm
not joking ; it's a very important and serious matter to have
your foot-gear of the best quality."

' The ice is broken. JSTansen expounds, Xordenskiold
nods a little sceptically now and then, and throws in a
question or two. He no doubt regarded the plan — at least
so it seemed to me — as foolhardy, but not absolutely
impracticable. It was obvious that ]N"ansen's personality
had instantly made a strong impression on him. He was at
once prepared, in the most cordial manner, to place the
results of his own experience at the young man's service.

' There were of course numbers of details to be gone
into : the Lapplanders, snow-shoes, sledges and boats — and
then the question whether the drift ice could be crossed as
Nansen had planned. But " the old man was up to his eyes
in work," and it was agreed that Nansen should come again.
Meanwhile, we were to meet the same evening, at the Geolo-
gical Society. As we were leaving I said aside to Norden-
skiold, " Well, what do you think ? I back him to do it."

' " I daresay you're right," answered Nordenskiold. But
the sceptical expression was again to the fore.

' After the meeting at the Geological Society, Nansen
accompanied me home. It was pretty well on in the evening.
While we were sitting talking, he genial and at his ease, I

NANSEN'S GREENLAND EXPEDITION 165

quite absorbed in all these new ideas, there came a ring at
the door, and in walked Nordenskiold. I at once saw that
he was seriously interested.

' We sat there till the small hours, discussing Arctic and
Antarctic explorations in general, and the Greenland expedi-
tion in particular. It was only four years since Norden-
skiold himself had made his last expedition on the Greenland
ice sheet ; and he was at this time, if I remember rightly,
much interested in arranging a combined Australian-Swedish
Antarctic expedition, in which his promising son, G. Norden-
skiold,^ who unfortunately died so early, was to have taken
part.

' T was going the next day to the usual Fourth of
November banquet at the house of the Norwegian Secretary
of State, and I asked Nansen if he would care to have an
invitation. No, he couldn't well appear on such an occasion
— he had only the clothes he was wearing.

' " But Mr. Nansen can come and dine with me, just as
he is," suggested Nordenskiold with frank cordiality ; and
so it was arranged.

'I cannot say whether Nansen, when he returned to
Christiania, a couple of days later, took with him the " ex-
cellent boots," though I know that Nordenskiold afterwards
sent him a pair of snow-spectacles. But, boots or no boots,
he certainly took back with him many a valuable hint, and
the assurance of complete sympathy on the part of the great
explorer. When, nearly two years later, they again met in
Stockholm, the foolhardy plan had been carried out, and
the journey over the inland ice from coast to coast was an
accomplished fact.'

Nansen's application to the Collegium Academicum for

' Three years later this young man undertook an expedition to Spitzbergen.

166 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

the means to carry out the expedition is dated November
11, 1887. The very first sentence goes straight to the
heart of the matter : 'It is my intention next summer to
undertake a journey across the inland ice of Glreenland
from the east to the west coast.' The amount he asked for
was 5,000 crowns (less than 300/.). It is so infinitesimally
small in comparison with the magnitude and importance of
the undertaking, that one cannot speak of it now without a
smile. But as yet the project was only a project, and the
projector an untried man. The faculty and the council
warmly recommended the scheme to the Government'. But
the Government could not see its way to sanctioning it.
One of the official organs was unable to discover any reason
why the Norwegian people should pay so large a sum as
300/. in order that a private individual might treat himself
to a pleasure- trip to Greenland. And undoubtedly the
Government here represented a very large section of the
people. Two widely different sides of the Norwegian
character were in this case at odds. The love of adventure
is represented in Nansen, the cautiousness, the ' canniness,'
of the Norwegian peasant is represented in the Government.
It is no mere chance that this 300/. should have come from
abroad. For except in scientific circles, and among the
young and ardent, the general opinion certainly was that
Nansen's undertaking was only worth}^ of a madman — though
no one actually went so far as to have him locked up, like
the man in the London madhouse whom Nansen is so fond
of citing. A comic pa2:)er in Bergen inserted the following
advertisement :

Notice. — In the month of June next, Curator Nansen will give a snow-
shoe display, with long jumps, on the Inland Ice of Greenland. Reserved
seats in the crevasses. Return ticket unnecessary.

NANSEN'S GREENLAND EXPEDITION 167

And in private conversation the affair was taken much
in the same way, when it was not regarded from a more
serious point of view, by peoj)le who thought it sinful to
give open support to a suicide.

Kor was it only the outside public that held these
opinions. Previous explorers of Greenland, who might be
supposed to know the local conditions, characterised the
plan as absolutely visionary. Nansen has himself reprinted
in his book a short extract from a lecture delivered in
Copenhagen, by one of the younger Danish explorers of
Greenland. He says : ' Among the few of us who know
something of the nature of Danish East Greenland, there is
no doubt that unless the ship reaches the coast and waits
for him till he is forced to confess himself beaten, it is ten
to one that either Nansen will throw away his own life, and
perhaps the lives of others, to no purpose ; or else he will
be picked up by the Eskimos, and convoyed by them round
Cape Farewell to the Danish stations on the west coast. But
no one has any right needlessly to involve the East Green-
landers in a long journey, which must be in many respects
injurious to them.'

It was, however, from Denmark that the requisite
financial assistance came. Professor Amund Helland, who
had himself been in Greenland, had strongly advocated the
plan in the Daghlad of November 24, 1887. 'After the
experiences of others on the inland ice,' he says, ' and after
what I myself have seen of it, I cannot see why young and
courageous snow-shoers, under an intelligent and cautious
leader, should not have every prospect of reaching the other
side, if only the equipment be carefully adapted to the
peculiar conditions. . . . All things carefully considered, I
beheve there is every likelihood that competent snow-shoers

168 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF

should be able to manage this journey without running any
such extreme risks as should make the expedition in-
advisable. Those who have travelled some distance on the
inland ice of Greenland number, at present, about twenty
men, and not a single life has been lost in these attempts.'

As a result of this article, Professor Helland was able to
announce to the Collegium Academicum, on January 12,
1888, that Mr. Augustin Gamel, of Copenhagen, had offered
to provide the 5,000 crowns.

Nansen accepted the generous offer. Afterwards, when
all was happily over, people criticised this action. He
ought to have waited patiently till the money turned up
somewhere in Norway. This wisdom after the event is
foolish enough. It ignores the actual facts of the situation.
JSTansen had made up his mind to pay for the whole enter-
prise out of his own pocket ; no one in JSTorway showed the
slightest eagerness to prevent his doing so. And, with all
his self-reliance, he could not, at that time, regard the
realisation of his idea as a privilege that must be reserved
solely and exclusively for Norway. The situation was
quite different when, five years later, with the eyes of
all the world upon him, he set out for the North Pole.
Then, indeed, it was of the utmost importance that the
money as well as the flag should be Norwegian. The
criticism seems all the emptier when we remember that the
Greenland Expedition did not cost 5,000 crowns, but more
than three times that amount, and that Nansen himself
M^ould have met this deficit out of his small private means,
had not the Students' Societ}?', after the successful return of
the expedition, set on foot a subscription which brought in
10,000 crowns.

It was, as Nansen had said to Dr. Grieg, a hard spring.

NANSEN'S GEEENLAND EXPEDITION 169

The first six months of 1888 passed in one incessant rush.
At the beginning of December 1887 he is back in Bergen.
At the end of January, he goes on snow-shoes from Eidfiord
in Hardanger, by way of Numedal, to Kongsberg, and
thence to Christiania. In March he is in Bergen again,
lecturing on nature and Kfe in Greenland. One day — or
rather night — we find him camping on the top of Blaaman-
den, near Bergen, to test his sleeping bag, and a week later
he is on the rostrum in Christiania giving his first trial
lecture for his doctor's degree, on the structure of the sexual
organs in the myxine.^ On April 28, he defends his doc-
torial thesis : The Nerve Elements : their structure and connec-
tion in the central nervous system — and on May 2 he sets off
for Copenhagen, on his wa}^ to Oreenland. ' I would rather
take a bad degree than have a bad outfit,' he used to say to
Dr. Grieg in those days. He succeeded in getting both
good, but only by straining every nerve. On the one hand
he had his scientific reputation to look to, on the other, his
own life and the lives of five brave men; for he was fully
convinced that, of all the dangers which were pointed out
to him, the most serious by far was the danger of a defective
outfit. On the outfit, more than on anything else, depended
victory or defeat, life or death.

It was in the January number of the periodical Naturen
(1888) that he for the first time made a public statement of
his plan. He explains that by striking inland from the east
coast, he will need to cross Greenland only once. It is true
that by this course retreat is cut off. ' The inhospitable
coast, inhabited only by scattered tribes of heathen Eskimos,
is by no means an enviable winter residence to fall back

^ The subject of the second lecture was : ' What do we understand by alter-
nation of generation, and in what forms does it occur ? '

170 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

upon in the event of our encountering unforeseen obstacles
in the interior ; but the less tempting the line of retreat, the
stronger will be the incentive to push on with all our
might.' This is one of the essential points of the plan — all
bridges are to be broken. Here we see the irresistible self-
confidence of genius — its triumphant faith in its power to
reach the goal. The thing that presents itself to ordinary-
prudence as the first necessity, namely, a safe and easy line
of retreat, genius regards rather as a hindrance and a thing
to be avoided.

Setzet Ihr niclit das Leben ein,

Nie wird euch das Leben gewonnen sain.

We will not here dwell upon the other features of the
plan, because in all essentials it was carried out as projected ;
and the modifications which proved necessary are sufficiently
well known through Hansen's own account of the expedition.
It will be remembered how they were caught in the drift ice,
carried down almost to the southern point of Greenland, and
then had to fight their way laboriously north again. It will
be remembered, too, that they did not strike inland, as they
intended, north of Cape Dan, but a good way farther south,
and that they reached the west coast, not, as contemplated,
on Disco Bay near Christianshaab, but at the Ameraliktiord
near Godthaab. These alterations are important enough in
themselves, but inessential in relation to the main object.
The plan itself having been set fortli, the article proceeds to
enumerate the scientific problems which may be solved or
brought nearer to a solution by a journey across the inland
ice. Nansen concludes by quoting Nordenskiold's words in
the preface to his book. The Second Dichson Expedition to
Greenland : ' Tlie investigation of the unknown interior of
Greenland is fraught with such momentous issues for

NANSEN'S GREENLAND EXPEDITION 171

science that at present one can hardly suggest a worthier
task for the enterprise of the Arctic explorer.'

Kansen was himself fully conscious of the great scientific
import of the journey he was about to take.

For the rest, this expedition required in its leader a
quite unusual combination of qualities ; an adventurous
imagination to conceive it, a Viking-like hardihood to carry
it through, strenuous physical training throughout child-
hood and youth to enable him to ^[ace its fatigues, and self-
sacrificing devotion to science in order to make the most of
the opportunities it afforded. And even more was required.
This young man, whose fame as yet rested entirely upon an
unfulfilled idea, had to take command of a little group of
brave men who all risked their lives exactly as he did, and
among whom were some who themselves had held command.
This was not a company of soldiers to be officered as a
matter of course ; it required a special tact, a peculiar
instinct, to bear oneself as primus inter pares. With all his
proud self-confidence, ISFansen had just this instinct. It
springs in part, no doubt, from a strain of gentleness in his
character, but may on the whole be regarded as simply
another manifestation of his singular knack of doing the
right thing at precisely the right moment. He had been
too early intent on ends of his own to develop what one
would call a specially social disposition. ' He is something
of a soloist,' one of his friends writes to us, ' steadfast
towards those to whom he really attaches himself; but
they are not many.' He is too absorbed in his work.
He is not expansive, in the sense of feeling any inborn crav-
ing to make friends. But now, in the moment of need, the
unaffected geniality of his temperament comes out quite
naturally in his relation to those who have had the courage

172 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

and the insight to place their trust in him. Given another per
sonality than his, the whole undertaking would not impro-
bably have gone to wreck, with the most disastrous conse-
quences. If it had been simply a question of mechanical
discipline, the spirit of revolt might easily have arisen in the
course of these indescribable hardships, and ruined every-
thing. As it was, all were agreed that, though discussion
should of course be' free, one must have the decisive voice.
But that one was of no higher rank than the others when
there was work to be done or hunger to be endured ; and it
was this complete equality that formed the strongest bond of
union. Stories have been invented as to the relations be-
tween the six Greenland explorers, some of them of a dark
and almost tragic tenor. We are able to state on the best
authority that all these legends, from first to last, are the
product of popular imagination, which, after the tremendous
enthusiasm over Nansen's return, necessaril}^ underwent a
reaction.

The men who accompanied Kansen were Captain Otto
Neumann Sverdrup, born October 31, 1855, in Bindalen ;
Lieutenant Oluf Christian Dietrichson, born May 31, 1856,
in Skogn, near Levanger ; Christian Christiansen Trana, born
February 16, 1865, at the farm of Trana, near Stenkjser ;
besides the, two Lapps, Samuel Johannesen Balto, aged 27,
and Ola Mlsen Eavna, aged 45. All these names have be-
come historical. To the two first-mentioned in particular a
great share in the credit of the expedition is due. The whole
civilised world is indebted to them, and Nansen most of all.
' People are very ready,' he says in the preface to The First
Crossing of Greenland, ' to heap the whole blame of an un-
successful expedition, but also the whole honour of a success-
ful one, upon the shoulders of the leader. This is particularly

NAJs SEN'S GREENLAND EXPEDITION 173

unfair in the case of such an expedition as the present, where
the result depends on absolutely no one falling short, on
every one filling his place entirely and at every point.'

For the lives of all these men ISTansen had now assumed
the responsibility, so far as the planning and management of
the journey was concerned ; and his responsibility began
with the outfit. With regard to this essential matter, all
the qualities we have been dwelling upon would have been
of no avail, had he not possessed one other, of the first im-
portance. He was accustomed to see things for himself.
He was an observer not only in the domain of science, but
also in that of practical life. As a boy, he pulled the sewing
machine to pieces to see how it was made, and as a young
man he had gone deeply into the question of the nutritive
value of the various food-stufFs. He had an eminently
practical and mechanical talent ; and he had been born with
the instinct of the Youngest Son in the fairy tale, for picking
up a magpie's wing whenever he came across it, since you
never could tell Avhen it might come in useful. No doubt he
had learnt much in his brief consultations with Norden-
skiold, whose numerous expeditions had always been con-
spicuous for their careful and excellent equipment. But the
expedition now in hand must be set about on an entirely
original plan, since they were to have neither reindeer nor
dogs, but were themselves to be their own beasts of burden
and drag every crumb of food and every instrument. JSTow
was the time to act up to the Nansen motto ' To require
little.' The thing was to ascertain what food-stufFs combine
a maximum of nourishment with a minimum of weight ; and
equally important was the consideration of the means of
transport to be employed. The lightness of everything was
the cardinal point which distinguished the Nansen expedition

174 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

from all others. Lightness became a study, an art. JSFansen
brooded on the problem by day, and dreamt of it at night.
Like Macbeth, he was haunted with visions of insubstantial
tolleknivs (sheath knives).

Everything was minutely criticised, from the raw
material up to the finished product. Many of the most
imjjortant articles Nansen designed for himself. From his
detailed description of the outfit we reproduce in a few
words the essential points : — Five specially constructed hand-
sledges of ash, with broad steel-plated runners. These
sledges were about 9 ft. 6 in. long by 1 ft. 8 in. broad, yet
weighed, with the steel runners, only a little over 28 lbs.
They were so excellently made that in spite of the tremen-
dous wear and tear they were subjected to not one of them
broke. Next came Norwegian snow-shoes {ski) of the most
careful make, as well as Canadian snow-shoes and Norwegian
wickerwork truger. The last were used particularly in
ascending the outer slope of the inland ice, and on wet snow
where ski were useless. The tent was furnished by Lieu-
tenant Eyder, of Copenhagen. It was just large enough to
accommodate the two sleeping-bags side by side upon the
floor. The dress of the part}^ consisted of a thin woollen
vest and woollen drawers ; over the vest a thick Iceland
jersey ; and for outer garments, jacket, knickerbockers and
thick snow-socks on the legs, all made of Norwegian home-
spun. For windy and snowy weather they had an outer dress
of thin sail-cloth. Their foot-gear consisted of boots with
pitched seams and Lapland lauparsko, a sort of moccasin.
On their heads they wore woollen caps and hoods of home-
spun, woollen gloves on their hands, and in extreme cold an
extra pair of dogskin gloves. For their eyes they had snow-
spectacles, some of smoke-coloured glass with baskets of

NANSEN'S GREENLAND EXPEDITION 175

steel-wire network, some of black wood with horizontal
slits.

The provisions consisted mainly of pemmican, meat-
powder, chocolate, calf-liver pate, a Swedish biscuit known
as kncikkebrod, meat biscuits, butter, dried halibut, a little
clieese, pea-soup powder, chocolate, and condensed milk.
They took two double-barrelled guns for replenishing their
larder. The cooking apparatus was a spirit-burning con-
trivance devised by Nansen and a chemist named Schmelck,
upon which they expended much labour. No spirits for con-
sumption ; some tea, a little coffee, a little tobacco. On the
other hand, an abundance of scientific instruments. And, to
complete the list, tarpaulins, which on the inland ice were
sometimes used as sails ; bamboo poles ; and a quantity of
tools and small necessaries of various kinds, from matches
and a few candles, down to darning needles — everything of
course as light as possible.

In only one single respect did this equipment prove in-
adequate. The pemmican, which should have been the
staple of their diet, had in the course of manufacture been
deprived of all fat, and Nansen did not discover the fact until
the last moment. The result was that they suffered after a
while from ' fat-hunger, of which no one who has not experi-
enced it can form any idea.' Even during the last daj'S,
when they had as much dried meat as they wanted, they did
not feel satisfied.

How easy it would have been in this terra incognita for the
outfit to have fallen short in other respects ! For one thing,
no one in the least foresaw that the expedition would, at this
time of the 5^ear, be exposed to such severe cold as was found
to prevail on the inland ice. It was a new and unknown
meteorological phenomenon which the expedition encoun-

176 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAJs^SEN

tered. If l!iansen had chosen woollen sleeping-bags instead of
those of reindeer-skin which he at last determined on, he and
his comrades, as he himself admits, would scarcely have
reached the west coast alive.

Yes, a great deal might have happened ; but luck was
on Nansen's side. His good genius was ver}^ active in all
that concerned this, his first great undertaking. But in the
last analysis, no doubt, the man who has ' the luck on his
side ' is he who shows capacity, foresight, genius, and does not
pit himself against forces which are in the nature of things
unconquerable.

We cannot conclude these lines on the preparations for
the Greenland expedition without mentioning that Nansen
was in constant communication with one of the most notable
of the explorers of Greenland, Dr. H. Eink. One service
that Eink certainly rendered him was to throw into strong
relief the perils of the expedition, although there were
moments when the enfeebled and nervously conscientious
old man reproached himself with not having dwelt on them
sufficiently. ' Eink at first regarded the plan,' his wife
writes to us, ' as a mere romantic fancy. And the more he
pondered it, and the more he became attached to the man
who was to carry it out, the more perilous did it become in
his eyes, until at last he blamed himself severely for not
having, in the course of all their discussions, painted in
strong enough colours the dangers to which he believed
the expedition would be exposed. So, expressly on this
account, we invited Nansen to pay us another visit. That
evening we spent for the most part in looking at pictures of
Greenland, in a quieter and more serious frame of mind, on
the whole, than on previous occasions, when there had been
a vast amount of jesting over the chances (cannibalism not

NANSEN'S GREENLAND EXPEDITION 177

excepted) tliat miglit befall the expedition on tlie ice fields.
On tliese occasions everybody used to laugh, very heartily,
except Eink. And I remember I had to bear all the blame
of this unseemly conduct after the party broke up.'

In Eink's house, too, they used to take lessons in
Eskimo, when time permitted. Sverdrup tried it first ; but
he could not oret his tono-ue round the Greenland idiom.
Dietrichson was good at it. ' Curiously enough,' writes
Mrs. Eink, ' I had pitched upon these two as the predestined
spokesmen of the expedition, and did not offer to give
JSTansen any lessons. Whereupon he said, as though a little
hurt : ' Mayn't I try too ? ' — and he went at it with the
earnestness and perseverance that are such charming traits
in his character. How remarkably he succeeded in picking
up the language, the Eskimos themselves bear witness.' ^

The last evening Hansen was at Eink's house, Mrs. Eink
accompanied him to the door. ' I said,' she writes, ' what
had often occurred to me, " You must go to the North Pole,
too, some day," He answered emphaticall}", as though he
had long ago made up his mind on the point, " I mean to." '

^ See Chapter XVII.

ITS LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTEE XI

ACROSS GEEENLAND

On May 2, 1888, Nansen started from Cliristiania, by way of
Copenhagen and London, for Leitli, where he was to meet
the rest of the party, who had gone, with the whole outfit,
from Christiansand direct to Scotland.

From Scotland they proceeded to Iceland by the Danish
steamer Thyra. Not until June 4 did they join the sealer
Jason (Captain M. Jacobsen) which was to carry them over
to the east coast of Greenland — under the express stipula-
tion, however, that the vessel should not be hindered in its
sealing operations for the sake of landing the party.

On Monday, June 11, they had their first glimpse of the
east coast of Greenland, sighting the high rugged peaks north
of Cape Dan at about the latitude where, in 1883, JSTorden-
skiold had succeeded in getting through the drift ice with
the Sophia. The ice belt between the vessel and the coast
proved, however, to be still so wide (from nine to ten miles
of rough ice) as to render any attempt to reach the land un-
advisable for the present. They had to wait about a month
for a favourable opportunity of leaving the Jason, which was
bound to remain in the region where the seal-hunting was
likely to be good. Meanwhile, Nansen acted as ' doctor ' to
the whole fleet of sealers, and had to possess his soul in
patience until the sealing season was practically over.

ACROSS GHEPZNLAND

179

Finally, on the morning of July 17, the Jason was so near
land (about 2^ miles from the coast near Sermilikfiord, at
65^ '^. lat.) that Nansen determined to force a passage
through the comparatively narrow belt of drift ice.

The boat belonging to the expedition, and a smaller one
which the captain of the Jason had placed at their disposal,

CHRTSTIANREX.

NANSEN. DIETRICHSON. SVEHDRUP.

THE MEMBERS OF THE GREENLAND EXPEDITION

were therefore lowered, the baggage packed and stowed in
the boats, and every preparation promptly made. At 7 p.m.
all was ready for a start. Nansen went up into the crow's-
nest for a last survey of the course, and saw plainly, with the
aid of the glass, a belt of open water between the drift ice
and the shore.

'We are taking to our boats with the firmest hope of a

N 2

180 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

successful issue to our enterprise,' JSTansen wrote in a letter
to the Morgenhlad, hastily sc^ribbled at the last moment.

It was soon apparent that their hopefulness was, at the
very outset, to be put to a severe test. After they had
tried the whole night long, in storm and rain, to get through
the drift ice - opposite the mouth of the Sermilikfiord, the
ice became so packed by the current that, in the early
morning, they had to drag their boats up on the floes.
One of the boats Avas injured by the pressure of the ice, so
that it had to be repaired in hot haste ; and during the
short time lost in doing this they were caught in a strong
southerly current, and swept seaward again at a great speed.
At 6 o'clock on the 19th they found that they were already
twice as far from land as when they had left the ship.

There was nothing for it but to drift southward with the
ice until an opportunity should offer of getting in under the
land again.

For ten days the expedition drifted along the east coast
of Greenland as far down as the island of Kudtlek, 61° 40'
N. lat., at an average rate of nearly six knots in the twenty-
four hours. Quite apart from the very serious dangers to
which Nansen and his comrades were exposed during this
drift voyage, the expedition was carried a long way from its
projected starting-point, and had lost a great deal of very
precious time. It was not till July 29 that they succeeded
in setting foot on dry land, and thus the best part of the
summer was already gone.

Nansen has given a vivid description of this interesting
drift voyage, and of life on the ice floe which, tossed about
by the waves and breakers, and repeatedly cracked and
broken, was yet the abiding-place of the expedition during
all these days. With the mountains of the coast so near

ACROSS GREENLAND 181

that in briglit weather they could clearly distinguish their
outlines, they were steadily borne southwards, further and
further from their goal.

The night of July 20 might easily have been their last.
The ice floe on which they were drifting had come right
out to the verge of the open sea, which was running very
high, so that the surf kept on washing over the floe almost
up to the tent. Had the floe been crushed, they might very
likely have found it impossible to launch the boats in such
a furious sea, and among the clashing masses of ice. In
any case they could not have saved more than one of the
boats, and the most indispensable part of the provisions and
equipment. One scarcely knows which to admire the most
— Sverdrup, who kept the night watch, pacing calm and
composed, with his quid in his cheek, up and down the floe,
between the tent and the boats, many times on the point of
loosening the hooks of the tent-flap to make them all turn
out, but always staying his hand — or JSTansen and Dietrich-
son, who lay quietly asleep in the tent, while the surf roared
and rattled the ice-brash over the rocking floe, and swept
ever nearer and nearer until it lapped the very edge of the
tent. But just as the outlook was blackest, the floe suddenly
changed its course, headed shorewards once more ' as if
guided by an unseen hand,' and was soon in safer waters.

Nansen and his companions had a hard time of it during
these perilous, exciting days on the ice floe. They did not
so much mind their toil in the rain and surf, fruitlessly
striving to force a passage through openings in the ice pack ;
they did not so much mind their scanty diet of raw horse-
flesh, &c. (the cooking apparatus was only once lighted
during their days of drifting) ; they did not so much mind
the dangers that threatened them on every hand ; but they

182 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

dreaded the prospect of having to give up for that season
the journey across the inland ice. These wasted days were
trying days indeed.

When the news of the success of the expedition reached
Stockholm, Nordenskiold pointed out, as the strongest proof
of the admirable energy displayed during the entire journey,
that when at last they had got through the belt of drift ice
they instantly set to work to row northwards again, in order
to reach the proper point for attacking the ice sheet. They
had, in a way, made an unfortunate and discouraging start.
It was already well on in the summer, the supply of pro-
visions was not over-abundant, and — civilisation was, more-
over, within temptingly easy reach. They were now only
180 miles from the nearest colony, Frederiksdal, while the
Sermilikiiord, the starting-point originally fixed upon, was
nearly twice as distant. The mere fact of their resisting the
temptation to put off till the following year may be called
truly heroic ; not many would have shown such resolution.
But for them the temptation was no temptation at all. It
did not enter their thoughts that there was anything to be
done except to head the boats northwards as quickly as
possible. And it was not with anxious fear, but with
radiant joy that they now saw a clear water-way before
them.

The first problem, that of getting through the drift
ice with whole skins, was thus solved — with great labour,
it is true, and loss of precious time, but nevertheless
solved. It had been prophesied that even this would prove
impractical )le ; for a long series of vain attempts had shown
that it was next thing to impossible to penetrate the ice belt
south of the sixty-sixth degree of latitude. Not until 1883
had iSTordenskiold, witli the steamer Sophia, succeeded in

ACEOSS GREENLAND

183

reaching the coast near Cape Dan (King Oscar's Haven).
So much the more daring was it on Hansen's part to make
the attempt.

But now the thing was to make all speed northward.
The best of the summer was gone. If they were to have
any chance of reaching the west coast that year, they must
go at it in earnest. And they did go at it in earnest.

>,^^%<^vr^-sv:s^

Ot>/'Sl)"N«

PUISORTOK

On the day of their landing at Kekertarsuak they had a
lordly repast of hot chocolate and extra rations of oat cake,
Swiss cheese, mysost (goat's milk cheese), and cranberry jam,
to celebrate their landing ; but after that their meals con-
sisted of cold water, biscuits, and dried beef — they could
not waste time in cooking until they had in some measure
made up what they had lost in the ice drift. It was a toil-
some journey by boat northward along the coast. For long

181 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

distances tliey had to exert all their strength to force the
ice floes apart in order to get the boats through the narrow
channels between them ; and sometimes they had to drag
the boats over the ice, skirting the low barren coast, with
glaciers and snow fields coming right down to the margin
of the sea. They got safel}^ past the dreaded glacier
Puisortok (near it, at Cape Bille, they came upon an en-
camjDment of heathen Eskimos, of which JN'ansen has given
a highly interesting description), and they forced their
way with the greatest difficulty through a closely packed
belt of drift ice south of Ingerkajarfik. At Mogens
Heinesens Fiord the appearance of the coast altered. From
this point northward there is a long stretch of bare coast-
land, with a view of high mountain ranges, ' summit on
summit, and rank behind rank.'

By dint of constant battling with the drift ice and the
current, the expedition reached Nunarsuak (62° 43' JSi". lat.)
on A.ugust 3. From this point they tried to sail, but the
wind soon rose to a tempest which was near proving fatal,
for the boats were on the point of being crushed between
the ice iloes, got their oars and thole-pins smashed, and were
separated into the bargain. It was a hard pinch, but by
putting forth all their strength they got through it at last,
and the tent was pitched on a patch of soft greensward on
GrifFenfeldt's Island, for the highly needful repose after an
exhausting day. A feast of splendid hot carraway soup,
'never to be forgotten,' was the reward of their toils.

On August 5 the boats narrowly escaped being crushed
by the falling of a fragment of an iceberg, and ' after almost
incredible labour ' they reached in the evening an islet at
the mouth of the Inugsuarmiutfiord, where they intended
to rest for the night. But Itoui here they perceived that

ACROSS GREENLAND 185

the water was open ahead, the fiord lyhig smooth as a
mirror; so their rest had to be adjourned. Forward again !
They certainly did ' go at it in earnest.'

At Singiartuarfik, on August 6, they again fell in with
Eskimos. Then northward again, now in open water, now
fighting with drift ice, always on cold dry diet which was
served out, moreover, in very scanty rations. They were
never really satisfied, not even directly after eating ; but
JSTansen ' said they had had enough, so enough it had to
be,' as Christiansen put it. To the Lapps, who naturally
had no very clear notion beforehand of what they had em-
barked upon, this perpetual fighting with drift ice, and
fasting on top of it, began to seem rather depressing.

The coast now became less precipitous again, and the
mountain contours rounder, and the explorers began to
think of landing and beginning their journey proper. On
August 8 they reached Bernstorfi"s Fiord (Kangerdlugsuak)
at about 63-f° JSF. lat. The fiord was brimful of glacier ice,
many of the huge icebergs rising out of the water to a height
of over two hundred feet (six or seven times as much being
under water), and running to a mile or so in breadth, some-
times flat-topped, sometimes jutting forth into the most fan-
tastic peaks, pinnacles, and crests. These colossal masses
were so innumerable that they threatened to bar all advance.
From the top of one of them the eye ranged over an
' alpine world of floating ice.'

At last chinks were discovered even in this barrier — open
channels ' with a narrow strip of sky visible between high
walls of ice.' And ' although huge icebergs more than once
collapsed, or capsized w^ith a mighty crash, and set up a
violent sea-way,' here, too, they at last got out of their difii-.
culties for the moment. That night they slept in the sleeping-

186 LIFE or miDTIOF NAN8EN

bags alone, upon a rock so small that there was not room to
pitch the tent.

In a more and more open water-way they pressed on
northwards, with masses of ice breaking off from the glaciers
and icebergs on every side. On August 9, while they were
in the act of forcing asunder two floes, among a number of
icebergs, a huge piece of an iceberg fell down with a mighty
crash upon the floe they were standing on, smashing it and
violently churning up the sea. ' Had we gone to that side
a few moments earlier, as we originally intended, we should
almost certainly have been crushed to death. It was the
third time such a thing had happened to us,' Nansen says in
his account of the expedition, characteristically describing it
as ' an odd occurrence.' Well may it be called ' odd '. ! How
does it hapjoen that some men come safe and sound through
all such adventures ; go voyages on ice floes and sleep un-
disturbed while the surf is on the point of breaking up the
fragile barrier between them and eternity ; row in boats
under toppling icebergs, and get clear of them two minutes
before they fall ; plump into fissures in the inland ice at the
very points where their arms and their alpenstocks can save
them ; row for days in dangerous waters in nutshell boats
improvised out of sail-cloth, and get in just in time to
escape storms and certain destruction ; sleep on the ice in
a temperature of —45° C. ( — 49° Fahr.) without freezing
to death ; fall into the ice-cold water half a score of times
not only without drowning, but without so much as taking
cold ; lead a dog's life of toil and hunger for months at a
stretch, and come out none the worse for it ; while others
— alas ! one has no heart to insist on the contrast. But truly
it may well be called ' odd ' !

Let us admit that ninety-nine hundredths of this ' devil's

ACROSS GREENLAND 187

own luck' is due to having an eye on every finger, so to
speak — is due to the sound mind in the sound body — to the
alert capacity of genius — to the indomitable energy of the
man with a vocation. Granted all this, how are we to account
for the remaining hundredth ?

These Greenland explorers are in league with destiny !

When Njaal and his sons were hard bestead, JSfjaal would
have had them give in ; and one of the sons agreed with
him that that was ' the best they could do.' Whereupon
Skarphedin answered : ' I am not so sure of that, for now he
is fey.' The Saga-man would have us understand that he
who is ' fey,' who is marked for death, has no longer
complete control of his will and his intelligence.

These young men were not ' fey ' in any sense of the
word.^

They now pressed forward in tolerably open water past
the glacier-bound coast near Gyldenlove's Fiord and Col-
berger Heide, and at last, at eight o'clock in the evening of
August 10th, in a thick fog, they made their final landing
on the north side of Umiviksfiord. They were now done
with the boats, and were overjoyed to haul them up on land,
JSTansen meanwhile making the coffee ' for the second hot
meal in twelve days.'

After Nansen and Sverdrup had assured themselves, by a
laborious reconnaissance on the 11th of August, that it was
possible to make the ascent of the inland ice from Umivik,
the following days were devoted to all kinds of rejoairs of
foot-gear, sledge-runners, &c., the final packing of the bag-
gage, and, in short, the most careful preparation for the

^ The word in the original is 'feig,' which means not only 'fey,' but
' cowardly.'

188 LIFE OF FETDTIOF NANSEN

journey that lay before them. Durino- all these days the
weather was mild and calm, with a great deal of rain —
weather in which it would not in any case have been
advisable to make a start.

At last, at nine in the evening on August 16th every-
thing was in order for the ascent. The baggage was stowed
on four sledges each carrying about 220 lbs., and a fifth,
somewhat larger sledge, carrying about double that amount.
This last was therefore drawn by two men, JSTansen and
Sverdrup.

The ascent of the ice was very steep, so that their pro-
gress was slow, and, although they at first travelled by night,
the surface was soft. The ice was full of crevasses, yet not
so difiicult but that they could manage to get across them.
It rained a good deal, too, so that they were wet to the skin.
For three days and nights, from noon on the 17th till the
morning of the 20th, the weather was so execrable, with
torrents of rain and wind, that there was nothing for it but
to keep to the tent. They were not very agreeable days,
especially as the supply of provisions was so small that
Nansen decided that one meal a day must suffice while they
were doing nothing.

On the 20th they were able to start off again. It was
frightfully slow going, over the steep surface, full of rents
and fissures. On the 21st it cleared up, and there was
frost enough to make the snow firmer. From that day
till they reached the west coast they found no drinking-
water anywhere, and consequently suffered from a burning
thirst. While on the march they got nothing to drink but
just what they could melt by the warmth of their own
bodies. They filled small flat pocket-flasks with snow and
carried them in their breasts, often next the skin, until' the

ACROSS GREENLAND 189

snow was melted. In sucli intense cold as they encountered
later, these were hard-earned drops.

When they turned out at two o'clock on the morning of
the 22nd, they found a frozen surface. They were now at
a height of about 3,000 feet, and thought they had got over
the worst' of the ascent. But the ice was still very uneven,
and the labour of dragging along the heavy sledges was
terrible- — ' the strain on the upper part of the body was very
trying, and our shoulders felt as if they were burnt by the
ropes.'

From the 24th onwards they travelled by day. The
€old now began to increase rapidly. Nevertheless, except
for a single day, the surface was still, as a rule, extremely
heavy, on account of the loose snow into which the sledges
sank deep ; and on the 26th they had, in addition, a regular
•snowstorm. The ascent was still so steep (a gradient,
sometimes, of 1 in 4) that it would often take three men to
pull each sledge, so that they had to cover the ground
several times over. No wonder that Christiansen, who, as a
rule, never opened his mouth, should have said to Dietrichson
after one of these return journeys : ' Good Lord ! to think
of people being so cruel to themselves as to go in for this
sort of thing.' The expedition had then reached a height
of about 6,000 feet.

This weather, with wind and snow-flurries, continued
during the following days. Although they tried to make
use of the wind by rigging up tarpaulin sails on the sledges,
they nevertheless got on so slowly that it began to dawn on
Nansen that, at this rate, there would be small prospect of
reaching Christianshaab now that the season was so far
advanced. On the 28th, therefore, he determined to take a
different direction, and steer due west, for Godthaab, or

190 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

rather for the shores of the Ameralikfiord (64° 10'), directly
south of Godthaab, a considerably nearer point on the west
coast. This proposition was received with joy by everyone,
and they set off through the snow with the same unremitting
toil, although in a slightly different direction.

The projecting peaks (nunataks) which, up to this point,
they had passed from time to time, now disappeared ; the
last glimpse of bare rock was seen on August 31. After
that nothing but ice and snow met their view until they
reached the west coast.

Still their course lay steadily upwards. The snow-field
rose in long, gentle waves, higher and higher toward the
interior.

For weeks they fought their way inland in this fashion,
one day exactly resembling another, and full of endless toil
from morning till night. The surface of the snow was now
smooth and even as a mirror, broken only by the tracks
they themselves made with their feet or their sledges. The
snow, frequently fresh-fallen, was, as a rule, fine and dry,
and therefore exceptionally heavy to drag the sledges
through. The day's march under these conditions was not
long — not more than from five to ten miles, although they
were now able to use snow-shoes.

As they advanced the cold became more and more severe.
When the weather was fine, indeed, the midday sun was
often quite oppressive, and their feet would get wet in the
slush ; but as soon as the sun went down, they felt the cold
of the nights so much the more keenly — and they were often
in danger of havinf? their wet feet frost-bitten. ' It often
happened, when we came to take off our laupar-shoes of an
evening, that we found them frozen fast in one solid piece
with snow-sock and stocking.'

ACROSS GREENLAND 191

On September 11, the temperature at night within the
tent was under —40° C. ( — 40° Fahr.), and outside the
tent probably under -45° C. (-49° Fahr.). The difference
between the day and the night temperature was often more
than 20° C. (36° Fahr.). Even inside the closed sleeping-
bag, the cold was so severe that when they awakened they
would often find their heads completely surrounded with ice
and hoar frost. ' To be obliged to be out constantly in such
cold is not always agreeable,' says Nansen in his book. ' It
often happened that so much ice formed about the face that
the beard was absolutely frozen fast to the wrappings round
the head, and it was difficult enough to open the mouth to
speak.' When in addition to the frost there came a snow-
storm, we can readily understand that it was no joke for them
to drag themselves, each with a heavy sledge as well, day
after day across the interminable ice desert, at an altitude of
8,000 or 9,000 above the sea. From September 4 to 8,
they encountered a furious snow-storm, with a temperature
of —40° Fahr. On the 7th indeed they dared not stir from
their tent, which was carefully hauled taut, lest the wind
should blow it to shreds — in which case, no doubt, their saga
would have been over. But when it was at all possible
their daily life followed its regular course ; and in spite of
cold and snow-storm, thirst, ' fat-hunger,' and other hard-
ships, they toiled steadily on towards the west coast. On
September 5 they passed the highest point on their route,
8,860 feet.

On September 11 and 12 they were at a height of about
8,300 feet ; and from here began a perceptible, if not very
marked, down gradient towards the west. On the 16th they
came upon several pretty sharp declivities, and when the

192

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NA^s^SEN

temperature at night 'just failed to reacli zero ' they all felt
that it was quite mild.

On the 17th they saw a snow-bunting, and knew they
must now be nearing ' land.'

On the 19th they had a favourable wind, and hoisted sails
on the sledges, which they lashed together, two and two.
They were soon going at a spanking pace, and now at last

UNDER SAIL IN THE MOONLIGHT — CREVASSES AHEAD !

they were distinctly upon the downward slope towards the
coast. Late in the afternoon they saw ' land ' for the first
time. They went on sailing in the moonlight, and very
nearly sailed their last voyage, for they had now reached the
fissured marginal zone of the inland ice, with its yawning
crevasses many hundred feet deep.

Nansen himself had the fingers of both hands frost-bitten
that evening, and suffered ' almost intolerable pain ' (it

ACROSS GREENLAND 193

must have been h?/I indeed ! ). Tliey liad little enough to
eat, too; but for all this they cared not a whit, for they
knew now that they were nearing the west coast.

The next morning (September 19) when they looked
out of the tent, and saw the whole country south of Godt-
haabsfiord spread out before them, one can guess what
were their feelings. ' We were like children — a lump rose
in our throats, while our eyes followed the valleys and
sought in vain for a glimpse of the sea.'

The next day they advanced pretty briskly, although
with the greatest caution, on account of the numerous
fissures, among which they had many narrow escapes.
On the evening of the 21st, for the first time since leaving
the east coast, they found water, and after several weeks of
thirst were able to drink freely. ' We could positively feel
our stomachs distending,' says Nansen. These were memora-
ble days for them all.

They pushed on now towards Ameralikfiord ; but it was
an advance under difficulties. The ice soon became terribly
uneven, and full of cracks and crevasses on all sides — some-
times so impassable that they had to make long detours.
Several times, one or another of them would fall into a
crevasse, but would generally manage to get his alpenstock
fixed like a horizontal bar across the fissure. ' It was odd
enough that none of us fell in any deeper.'

In spite of untold difficulties and dangers they made
their way during the succeeding days across this treacherous
marginal zone, and 'at last on September 24 reached naked
soil, and had the inland ice for ever behind them. 'No
words can possibly describe what it was to us merely to
have earth and stones under our feet — the sense of well-
being that thrilled through every nerve when we felt the

194

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

heatlier springing under our step, and smelt the marvellous
fragrance of grass and moss.'

Their difficulties, however, were not yet over — they had
still a good way to go down the long Austmannadal, and
now everything had to be carried on their backs. This
final stage they accomplished in the following days, and at
last the fiord was reached.

Here Sverdrup and Balto set to work to stitch together

NANSEN AND SVERDRUP IN THE CANVAS BOAT

the hull of a canvas boat, using for the purpose the sail-cloth
floor of the tent ; while Nansen cut willow-wands to make
the frame. Oars were improvised out of bamboo staves
and split willow-branches covered with sail-cloth. For
thwarts they had nothing but a theodolite-stand and two
thin bamboo rods.

It was an uncouth nutshell of a boat, about 8 feet long,
not quite 4 feet G inches wide, and scarcely 2 feet deep. It

ACEOSS GREENLAND 195

was just big enougli to hold Nansen and Sverdrup, and the
most necessar}'- baggage ; and they had to keep their tongues
pretty straight in their mouths, or it would have capsized.

After a terrible business in getting boat and baggage
through the river delta and across a clayey spit of land to
the open water, on September 29, Nansen and Sverdrup at
last rowed off down the Ameralikfiord. Although the boat
could scarcely be classed as Al, and leaked so that it had
to be baled every ten minutes, it nevertheless carried them
to their journey's end.

They had favourable weather on the whole, and, by dint
of great exertions, they brought their coracle safe and sound
to ISTew Ilerrnhut at midday on October 3. Scarcely had
they got ashore, when a terrific southerly gale came on.
From New Herrnhut they went overland to Godthaab.

Dietrichson, Christiansen, and the two Lapps, who had
remained behind at the head of the Ameralikfiord with
the bulk of the baggage and no great store of provisions,
were brought off in safety as soon as the weather permitted ;
and thus, on October 16, did this remarkable expedition
come to a fortunate close.

' We had toiled hard, and undeniably suffered a good
deal in order to reach this goal ; and what were now our
sensations ? Were they those of the happy victor ? No ;
we had looked forward so long to the goal that we had
discounted its attainment.' So Nansen writes of his feelings
the evening before they arrived at Godthaab. And this is,
no doubt, comprehensible enough. They were too tired, too
worn out, for the abstract exultation at having actually
reached their goal to be able to assert itself effectuall}^
against the more material delights, for example, of eating
till they were satisfied and sleeping in a proper bed.

0 2

196 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Besides, the satisfaction had been broken up into many
happy moments during the actual journey — they had had a
taste of it when, with confident hope, they landed on the
east coast, after forcing their passage through the drift ice ;
they had revelled in it when they first saw land from the
heights of the inland ice, when they first found water to
drink, when they first felt the solid earth, with heather and
moss, under their feet, when they launched their boat on the
waves of the Ameralikfiord. The satisfaction really lay in
the exploit as a whole, in the stimulating open-air life,
toilsome though it was — not so much in the goal attained, as
in the struggle to attain it. As soon as that was done, why,
it was done ; there was no longer anything to toil and strive
for, and lassitude rushed in upon them until other more
distant goals began to loom ahead in their thoughts. This,
indeed, is what inevitably happens to every man who is
really born with the spirit of research. So long as he has
streno-th and facultv for new problems, his iov over those
achieved must be short-lived. It must give place, in the
ferment of the mind, to new aspirations ; and in Hansen's
case these new aspirations were already lying in wait. We
may safely assume that even during his stay in Greenland
the plan of his next great enterprise must have been taking
shape in his thoughts.

When the expedition reached the colony, the ship from
Godthaab had already started. Nansen, however, got
kaiak-men to take letters to Ivigtut, seventy miles south of
Godthaab. They were duly delivered, at the last moment,
on board the steamer Fox^ which had carried McClintock
on his voyage in search of Franklin ; and thus the news of
the successful issue of the Greenland expedition reached

ACROSS GREENLAND 197

Europe that autiiiiin. It clianced that the Fox was obhged,
by scarcity of coal, to touch at Skudesnass, so that JSTansen's
native country got the first inteUigence.

The two letters brought by the steamer, one from
JSFansen to Gamel, the other from Sverdrup to his father,
were soon telegraphed over the whole world, and, as will be
remembered, were everywhere received with great rejoicing.

Meanwhile Nansen and his comrades had to winter in
Godthaab, where Herr Bistrups, the director of the colony,
Doctor Binzers, Pastor Balles, and the other Danish residents,
showed them the greatest hospitality, and did everything to
make their stay as pleasant as possible. Nansen himself
turned his time to account in studying the Eskimos. He
shared their life with them in their huts, went thoroughly
into their methods of hunting, their customs and occupa-
tions, and even got to know their language pretty well. He
learned to manage the kaiak and wield their weapons ; in
short, he spared no possible pains in his study of this
remarkable people, for whom he soon came to entertain a
real affection.

He also made several excursions with the Greenlanders,
a hunting expedition to Ameralikfiord, and longer trips to
Sardlok and Kangek, durin^ which he lived for some
weeks entirety wdth the Eskimos.

The results of his studies he afterwards embodied in his
book on Eskimo Life, in which he gave lively expression to
his sympathy with these children of nature, doomed as they
are to extinction. This book, as we shall afterwards see, is
an important document towards the understanding of his
own character and temperament.

On April 15, 1889, while Nansen and his comrades sat
chattina: over their coffee with the colonial director and the

198 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

doctor, tlie whole colony resounded with one universal cry,
' Umiarsuit ! Umiarsuit ! ' (The ship, the ship !) It was
the longed-for vessel, Hvidhiornen, under the command of
Lieutenant Garde.

The hour of departure had come, and everything was
soon in order. ' It was not without sorrow,' Nansen says,
' that some of us turned our backs on the people who had been
so good to us, and the place where we had lived so happily.'
So far as Nansen himself is concerned, one may be sure
that these words are the expression of sincere feeling. A
nature like his, with its healthy passion for open-air activity,
must have been in its element among these kindly primitive
people. He relates a charmingly characteristic little inci-
dent of their leave-taking. One of his Eskimo friends,
whom he had often visited, said to him the day before his
departure : ' JSTow you are going back to the great world
whence you came to us, and you will meet many people
there, and hear many new things, and you will soon
forget us ; hut ive ivill never forget you.''

Those who know Nansen know that he has not forgotten
his Eskimo friends ; and those who have read his book de-
scribing their life will understand how dear they had become
to him.

On May 21, after a favourable passage, Hvidbiornen an-
chored in the harbour of Copenhagen. It was a little more
than a year since Nansen, on his way to Oreenland, had passed
through Copenhagen, and put the hasty finishing touches
to the prei)arations for the expedition. A great deal had
happened in the interval. In himself, indeed, he was just the
same when he came back as when he went away ; but in the
eyes of the world he was a very different person. Then he
had been a young dare-devil setting forth on a forlorn hope ;

ACROSS GREENLAND 199

now he was tlie world-renowned explorer who had success-
fully carried through a great undertaking.

And then came the triumphs. First a week's festivities
in Copenhagen, and then the home-coming — such a home-
coming as has fallen to the lot of no other Norwegian. It
was a lovely day as the triumphal procession passed up
Christiania Fiord — all the ships were in festal array, the
woods wore their first green leaves, there were flowers and
flags and music on every hand, up the whole long fiord, to
the city. It was as though a flood of colour and warmth
had streamed forth to greet these visitants from the white
wastes of the inland ice.

First came the men-of-war and the torpedo boats, skim-
ming along beside the M. G. Melchior, and formiug a guard
of honour, right up to the capital ; then the great squadron
of steamships, then the sailing-boats and cutters with their
white sails, darting around Hansen's ship like a flock of sea-
galls, now astern, now abeam, now ahead. There he stood
in his grey clothes which had turned to dirty brown in the
Greenland turf huts. The honour done him was too over-
powering for him to feel proud at that moment. A softer
and more subdued emotion must doubtless have been in the
ascendant. He must have felt how he passed over into his
people, and became one with it. He had gone forth as an
emissary, an interpreter of this people ; the courage which
goes unknown and unrecorded to its fate in the dark nights
on sea and fiord, it had been his happy lot to lead forward
into sunshine and victory before the eyes of the whole world.
Amono- all the thousands who waved to him from the ram-
parts of Akerhus, who burst the cordon of the police aad
swarmed round his carriage in the streets, how many at that
moment had any thought of science ? It was the exploit

200 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

tliat apiDealed to tliem — they saw in liim the victorious chief-
tain, the connecting hnk between the heroes of the Sagas
and the heroes of everyday Hfe, the fisherman chnging
to his overturned boat, the snow-shoer on the wintry up-
lands, the lumberman shooting the rapids on his raft. They
saw in him the national type ; and they were right in a way.
In that hour he must certainly have felt himself close-knit
to the soil from which his deed had sprung, and memories
of childhood must have rushed in upon him when his car-
riage stopped at the house of the sisters Larsen, and he ran
upstairs to greet the old housekeeper at Great Froen, who
had bandaged his blood-stained forehead the first time that
he kissed the ice.

But we, whose business it is to give a complete picture,
cannot ignore science ; for, to the world at large, it is the
scientific import of the expedition that gives this national
welcome its true historic validity.

201

• CHAPTEE XII

THE SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GEEENLAND
EXPEDITION.^

The plain man has sometimes asked whether, to be quite
frank, the scientific outcome of the Greenland, expedition was
not rather meagre, and whether we might not have expected
something very different. Some have thought it particularly
strange that Nansen, being originally and specially a zoolo-
gist, did not bring home with him more zoological informa-
tion. And there are even some, with more pretence to
scientific knowledge, who have underrated the results of the
expedition because they have not been, like those of earlier
expeditions, published in ponderous technical tomes.

The answer is tolerably evident. Both by their plan and by
the particular circumstances under which it was executed, the
explorers were compelled to concentrate their energies upon
the one great point of pressing steadily forward, both
through the drift ice and over the inland ice. No retreat
was possible ; all bridges were broken from the moment the
expedition left the Jason ; and it is not too much to say
that their lives depended upon their wasting no time that
could possibly be applied to making headway. And in the

^ Nansen first summarised in lectm-es the scientific results of the expedition.
They were then set forth in an appendix to The First Crossing of Greenland,
and finally stated in full in the article entitled ' Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse
von Dr. F. Nansen's Durchquerung von Gronland, 1888,' von Prof. H. Mohn
und Dr. Fridtiof Nansen, Ergiinzungsheft Nr. 105 zu Petermanns Mittlieilungen
(Gotha, 1892).

202 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

act of progression, whether in the boats, on the ice floe, or
over the inhmd ice, their strength had always to be exerted
to the uttermost.

Even in the moments of necessary rest, it was impossible
to devote a great deal of time to observation. There was
of course no possibility of making collections, since the
baggage had to be restricted to what was absolutely
essential in order to support life. The scientific harvest,
then, was confined, in the nature of things, to what could
be gathered during the actual advance, and without any
hindrance to it.

As to zoological and botanical results, it was almost
impossible on board the Jason to dredge or otherwise make
collections, since their contract was that nothing should
interfere with the seal-hunting operations. Had Nansen,
like Nordenskiold, had a steamer of his own, the case would
have been quite different.

The fact that ISTansen did not bring back from the
inland ice any material for zoological or botanical dis-
quisitions, is explicable on the sole and sufiicient ground
that within the marginal zone on both sides there was not
a single trace of life to be seen. This is an interesting and
important negative result, even though it can be stated
in two words. On the west coast, during their winter at
Godthaab, they were entirely without scientific apparatus
either for collecting (such as dredges, &c.) or for preserving
specimens (spirit), or for study (microscopes, books of refer-
ence, &c.).

Thus it is not surprising that the zoological and
botanical harvest of the expedition was scanty ; it could
not, under the circumstances, be otherwise. We must

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF GREENLAND EXPEDITION 203

bear in mind, too, tliat Nansen is not specially endowed by
nature witli the collector's faculty, so tliat we can scarcely
expect from liim an exhaustive catalogue of the fauna and
flora of a given localit)'', or the discovery and description of
this or that new species. However useful and important
such labours may be, Nansen's temperament is not adapted
for them. On the contrary, his talent evidently lies in the
direction of concentrating every energy upon the solution
of individual problems of wide significance ; descriptive
cataloguing does not sufficiently stimulate his interest.^

On the other hand, the geographical, geological, and
meteorological results of the expedition were particularly
valuable and important. The meteorological observations
are due for the most part to Dietrichson. ' He devoted
himself to this task with a zeal and self-sacrifice which I
cannot sufficiently admire,' Nansen writes in The First
Crossing of Greenland; and 'what it means to do such work
under such circumstances, no one can fully realise who has
not tried to take observations and keep a meteorological diary
exactly and punctually, in a temperature of —30° C. ( — 22°
Fahr.) in the midst of exhausting labour and with danger
threatening on every side, having sometimes to write when
the fingers are so numbed and swollen with cold that they
can scarcel}^ hold the pencil. Such work as this demands
character and energy indeed.'

The meteorological, astronomical, magnetic, and trigono-
metrical observations have been tabulated by Professor H.

^ The expedition was not, however, quite without zoological results. In
addition to the accounts of the hooded seal, the grampus, the bottlenose whale,
&c., included in The First Crossing of Greenland, considerable collections were
brought home by the Jason, though not of sufficient interest to be made the
basis of a special study.

204 LIFE OF FHIDTIOF Js^ANSEI^

Molin, in the above-mentioned paper in Petermanns Mitthei-
hmgen. Of special interest is the series of readings of the
atmospheric temperature in a high-lying desert of snow
and ice, which the expedition supplied for the first time.
The effects of radiation in the dry rarefied atmosphere of the
inner plateau proved to be surprisingly great. During the
period of extreme cold which the expedition encountered
between the 11th and 15th of September (at a height of
7,000 or 8,000 ft.), the temperature fell at night so low as

— 45° C. ( — 49° Fahr.), and rose in the warmest hours of the
day to —20° C. ( — 4° Fahr.), thus showing a daily variation
of about 25° C. (45° Fahr.). Such extreme variations are
not elsewhere recorded except in the interior of the Sahara and
other deserts, where also the dryness of the air renders the
radiation very great.

In accordance with the observations of the expedition,
Mohn calculates that the mean temperature of the interior
of Greenland at a height of about 7,000 feet is —25° G.
( — 13° Fahr.), and the mean temperature for January and
July respectively is -40° C. (-40° Fahr.), and -10 C. (14°
Fahr.)

We may assume with tolerable certainty that the tempera-
ture of the inland ice in the coldest months falls as low as

— 65° C. ( — 85° Fahr.), 25° below the mean temperature of
January, or probably even as low as —70° C. (-94° Fahr.).

It thus appears, as a result of these observations, that
there is in the land ice of Greenland a pole of maximum cold,
the second in the northern hemisphere, at the sam.e distance
from the North Pole as the one formerly known at Werclio-
jansk in Siberia. These facts were formerty entirely
unknown. The meteorological character of the interior of
Greenland seems to exclude the hypothesis, advanced by

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF GREENLAND EXPEDITION 205

JSTordenskiold among others, of a lohn-wind ' blowing from
one side to the other.

The geographico-geological results consist mainly in
observations as to the conditions of the land ice — firstly, as to
its extent, and then as to its conformation and general nature.
The main scientific result of the expedition, as may be
understood from the foregoing sketch of the Great Ice Age,
is the fact, which it has once for all ascertained, that we
have in Greenland an ice-covered country offering a tolerably
exact representation of the state of JSTorthern Europe and
JSTorth America during this important era in the history of
the earth.

Even before ISTansen's expedition, indeed, there was every
reason to suppose that the whole of the interior of Greenland
was covered with ice ; but absolute certainty on the point
was only to be secured by an actual crossing of the ice sheet.
Even such an Arctic specialist as JSTordenskiold, who had
penetrated further u|)on the land ice than any one before
him, still conceived it possible that the interior of Greenland
was not entirely covered b}^ ice, conjecturing that in 1883
he might simply have chanced upon a broad band of ice
stretching right across the country at latitude 69° and 70°.
JSTansen's expedition must be held to put an end to all idea of
'oases,' or considerable stretches of ice-free country, in the
interior of Greenland ; and this result has now been com-
pletely confirmed by Peary and Astrup's expedition over the
northern part of the Greenland ice field.

The final proof of the existence of an ice sheet of such vast
extent is so important from the geological and geographical

^ A moist sea-wind, striking against a chain of mountains and cooling at a
great heigiit, gives off its vapours in the shape of rain ; thus the latent heat of
the aqueous vapour is liberated, and the wind sweeps down on the other side of
the mountain chain as a warm, dry wind, called by the Swiss fohn.

206 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

point of view tliat it will no doubt render tlie expedition for
ever memorable in tlie annals of science. And around this
main result a number of minor and special results group
themselves, by which our earlier conceptions of the configura-
tion, surface, structure, and meteorology of the land ice (for
the most part based on observations taken in its marginal
zone) have been entirely altered.

As to the configuration, Nansen discovered that the ice
sheet arches with extreme regularity over the whole of Green-
land (except the narrow coast-rim) like a shield somewhat
pointed towards the south, all transverse sections of it taking-
very nearly the form of segments of circles whose radius in-
creases from the south northwards. The surface of the shield
is thus more convex towards the south and flatter towards the
north. The highest point reached by Nansen was about
8,660 feet above the sea ; and from this point the surface
sloped with remarkable regularity symmetrically to both
sides, just as one would expect in an extremely viscous
plastic mass.

The highest point of Hansen's route, however, lay some-
what nearer to the east coast than to the west. It is pro-
bable, then, that the ice-shed of Greenland (the dividing line
between the ice which flows westward and that which flows
eastward) must lie approximately parallel with the longitu-
dinal axis of the land ice ; so that its situation has probably
nothincr to do with what would have been the water-shed if
Greenland had been free from ice.^

The ' nunataks ' of the coast zone apart, no trace of pro-
jecting peaks appeared anywhere on the route of the expedi-

^ A number of investigators, and particularly G. de Geer, have proved that in
Scandinavia, during a great part of the glacial epoch, the ice-shed (the division
between the ice which flowed to the Atlantic and that which flowed to the Baltic)
was quite independent of the existing water-shed.

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF GEEENLAND EXPEDITION 207

tion ; nor have projecting peaks been found anywhere else
in Greenland, except within the narrow coast belt. Thus
the mighty mantle of the land ice, at some points no doubt
something like 7,000 feet deep, completely conceals both
mountain and valley in the interior. It is itself entirely
devoid of any covering of stones, gravel, or dust,^ and with-
out an}^ trace of life.

The almost mathematical regularity of the surface of this
mantle of ice and snow proves that it is entirely conditioned
by the rainfall and snowfall, by the wind, and by the laws
which govern the contour of viscous plastic bodies, and is
not in any appreciable degree affected by the special form of
its substratum. This substratum, or in other words, the
underlying bed-rock, has doubtless in Greenland, as in Scan-
dinavia, a quite irregular mountainous surface.^

1 No trace was found in the interior of the dust described by Nordenskiold
on the outer zone of tlie land ice, which he regarded as cosmic, and entitled
' kryokonite.' It has long been proved, by Von Lasault, Lorenzen, Wttlfing, and
others, that this dust does not descend from space, but is blown up from the ice-
free coast rim. Nansen's discovery that it is entirely absent in the interior con-
firms the theory that krj'okonite cannot in any appreciable degree be of cosmic
origin.

- The land ice must have originated somewhat in this fashion : in the high-
lying parts of the country (then probably higher than at present) more and more
of the snowfall must have remained unmelted from year to year, as the climate
grew steadily colder, and the land perhaps rose higher and higher over the sea
level. Thus, through the customary transformation of snow into glacier ice,
more and naore glaciers were formed in the higher parts of the country, which
gradually extended over the lower regions as well, until at last all inequalities
were filled up, and the whole country was buried in ice and snow. As is proved by
the glaciers along the fiords, the ice flows out from the interior to all sides ; it
also melts into water on its under surface (even in winter, rivers and brooks
everywhere flow from under the Greenland glaciers) ; and thus the growth of
the ice sheet, through the perpetual rain and snowfall on its upper surface, is kept
in check. It is as yet impossible to say whether the diminution of the ice sheet
by the giving-off of icebergs and the melting of the under surface (together with the
doubtless quite insignificant evaporation from the upper surface), or its increase
by means of rain and snowfall, is for the present the more active ; or, in other
words, whether the ice sheet of Greenland is on the whole increasing or decreas-
ing. AVhat is certain is that it was at one time more extensive than it now is.

208 LIFE OF FRIUTIOF NAXSEN

Accordino" to ISTansen, then, the fact that the surface of
the land ice takes the form of a convex shield in no way
indicates that the mountains under it are highest where the
ice sheet is highest. The convex form, with the greatest
elevation in the middle, must have arisen irrespective of the
substratum, because a viscous plastic mass flowing out to
every side must necessarily be at its highest where the
resistance to its outflow is greatest, and consequently, as a
rule, in its middle.

The surface in the interior consisted everywhere of
snow, not of ice. They could everywhere plunge their
alpenstocks (over 9 feet long) as far as they would reach
through the covering of snow, which proved to consist of
alternate layers of loose snow and thin sheets of ice, formed
by the slight meltings of the surface. But in their deepest
soundings they found no solid ice. The upper layer,
throughout the interior, consisted of loose snow-dust, which
was swept by the wind into long dunes, so flat as to be
almost imperceptible, running approximately north and
south. The stratification of the snow sheet in the interior
of Greenland proves that here, at a height of 6,000 feet and
more, the snow does not melt in the summer so much as to
form a surface of strong ice ; though the very trifling
quantity of snow-water, which the sun forms by melting the
thin surface layer, is congealed by the frost at night, and
does not flow off" in liquid form.^

All these important and interesting facts as to the interior
of the land ice may be said to have been practically
unknown before Nansen's expedition, all earlier expeditions
having either failed to get beyond the marginal zone or

^ We may recall how Nordenskiold in 1883 had to stop his advance because
the whole surface was found to be supersaturated slush, in which they were
almost in danger of drowning.

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF GREENLAND EXPEDITION 209

advanced sucli a short way witliin it as to have been unable
to realise the essential features which give the land ice its
individuality.

We cannot here go into the details of Nansen's report as
to the conditions of the land ice. We cannot enter into the
questions of its movement, depth, and diminution by melt-
ing ; or reproduce the numerous facts he has collected, as
to the nature of the marginal zone, the formation of ice-
bergs, the Polar current, and the drift ice on the Greenland
coast. These observations are of less general significance
than those above mentioned.

The more clearly we recognise the importance of a
complete understanding of the Great Ice Age, the more
highly will the scientific results of Nansen's Greenland
expedition be appreciated.

210 LIFE OF FREDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTEE Xlir

EVA NANSEN AN ILL-STAEEED INTEEVIEW

By NORDAHL EOLFSEN

On tlie night of August 12, 1889, a shower of sand and
gravel rattled against the window-panes of the house in
Eilert Sundt's Street, where lived Fridtiof JSTansen's half-
sister, to whom he was in the habit of confiding everything.
Her husband — the friend who, as a boy, had been Fridtiof s
companion in field and forest, and had taught him to shoot
and fish — sprang out of bed and opened the window.

' Who is that ? ' he called out angrily into the night. A
grey figure loomed through the darkness, and a voice was
heard to say : ' I want to come in.'

From the window fell terms of abuse such as used to
be current in Nordmarken. But the grey figure stood its
ground : ' I want to come in.'

And at two o'clock in the morning, Fridtiof JSTansen
planted himself in the middle of his sister's bedroom, with
his long legs far apart, and his hands in his trouser pockets,
and glowered at her. She sat up in bed.

' Good Heavens, Fridtiof, what's the matter ? '

' I'm engaged, my girl ! '

' Oh, are you ? To whom ? '

' To Eva of course.'

Then he said he was huiio-rv. And his brother-in-law
had to i>"0 out to the lai'der for cold roast beef and down

MRS. NANSBN

EVA NANSEN— AN ILL-STAERED INTERVIEW 211

into tlie cellar for cliampagne. Then tlie table was spread
on his sister's bed, and the new chapter of Fridtiofs Saga
was inaugurated by a nocturnal banquet, at which he no
doubt sang this stave from the Haavamaal :

For love of maid

shall no man mock

or scorn his fellow ;

the wise is oft won

by the loveliness

that moves not the witless.

Fridtiof wrote to his Bjorn and told him the news. But
Sverdrup did not reply ' Fridtiof, thy folly seems strange
to my mind.' He wrote : ' I have lain awake the whole night
thinking it over ; the deuce only knows why I'm so glad.
For I suppose it's all up with the I^orth Pole now.'

But thus says the Saga — and for this we have the testi-
mony of a true man and a true woman — that when Fridtiof
ISTansen spoke of his love he said in the same breath, ' But
you know I'm going to the North Pole.' 'For,' says the
one who has the best reason to know, 'he always plays fair.'

But who is she ?

Thus says the Saga : There was once a very famous man,
a poet, whose name is known over Europe, America, and
Australia. And he would sometimes walk the streets so
buried in thought that he didn't bow to Eva Nansen. And
she complained of it. And the famous poet said, ' If it
happens again, you have only to whisper as you pass, " Bow,
you devil ! " ' And she did.

And this was the woman I was to interview ! I trembled.
I had once been at Godthaab before Hansen's departure, and
she had set two yellow hunting-dogs on me — for the more I
have thought it" over, the more I am convinced that it was
she. And they bit and tore my calf, and I did not complain,

212 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

for I knew that the poor animals were being trained to bear
hunger, and I wiUingly contributed my mite — no such small
one either — to the North Pole Expedition.

And now she was alone. And I must face her. I simph^
dared not. I would first approach her by telephone, and
even so I would have an intermediary. I sent and asked for
an appointment. She replied that she was very bus}^ and
couldn't promise anything definite, but she fancied she
might manage it — in about three weeks — by telephone.

But in three weeks this book was to be through the
press. I had to pull myself together and risk it. I did not
go by rail. I took a sledge, so that I could beat a hasty
retreat at any moment. I drove in soft snow, very slowly,
up hill and down dale to Svartebugta, and gazed out over the
ice on the bay, dull and soft in the spring thaw. ' Heaven
grant that she may thaw, too ! ' I sighed.

She received me. She signed to her doo- that he was not
to bite me, and she had my horse fed. She uttered certain
mystic words which I thought might be construed to mean
that I too should have something to eat.

I was quite overpowered ; this friendly reception took
me utterl}^ aback. I instantly took off my great coat and
out my pencil. A singular gleam came into her eyes,
which reminded me of the princess in the fairy tale, when
she looks at the victim who has vainly attempted to achieve
the quest, and has to retire with three red stripes scored on
his back, and salt rubbed into the wounds. But she was
monstrously polite. At that moment Liv came in crying
with all her might. I remembered having read in an
article by an English interviewer how she had laid her hand
on the child's head and said : ' This is my only consolation.'
But Liv went on shrieking, for she wanted a pair of scissors

EVA NANSEN— AN ILL-STAEEED INTEEVIEW 213

to cut tlie tablecloth with, and Madam Eva said crossly :
' Fie ! you're intolerable, Liv ! ' And Liv was removed. I
was abashed ; but I said with deep feeling : ' Of course I
know she is your only consolation.'

Whereupon she laughed in my face : ' Liv wasn't at
home that day, as a matter of fact.'

' When the interviewer was here ? '

' She wasn't in the house.'

I stood and chewed at my pencil, and then blurted out :
' Wouldn't she tell me a little about Nansen ? '

' Nansen ? I don't know anything about J^ansen.'

But a peculiar gleam came into her eyes, a gleam as of
a sunbeam throuo-h rain clouds.

Pause. I went and glared stupidly at the pictures.

I stopped in a remote corner before a beautiful picture
by an English master. It represents a woman sitting, or
rather crouching, on the globe, with her eyes blindfolded ;
but her face below the bandage irradiated with light. And
under the picture is written ' Hope.'

And this was just at the time when IS[ansen's name was
flying far and wide over the globe. Mysterious tidings had
arrived that he had reached the ISTorth Pole and discovered
new land. But no one knew anything for certain. Over
all the civilised world, women were saying to each other,
' I wonder how Mrs. Nansen feels ? '

I was seized with emotion there in the corner. I dried
my eyes with my pencil, and turned and said in a husky
voice : ' Where did you get that picture ? '

' In London. Nansen and I boucfht it there.'

' Had you at that time — have you — I mean, has it any
association — any special value in your eyes.'

' None whatever.'

214 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAJs^SEN

I dropped into a cliair beside the heartli, or the fireplace,
or whatever they have out there at Godthaab.

She threw some papers across the table to me. They
contained the last report from the Norwegian- Swedish
Minister at St. Petersburg as to the possibilities and impos-
sibilities in connection with the Kuschnarew letter, &c., &c.
' Ijatest news,' she said dryly. She could not have thrown
down the Morgenpost with less reverence.

' It grows less and less probable, don't 3^ou think ? ' she
said with lio-ht scorn.

I read the whole folio through with care, and began, with
all the earnestness of conviction, to argue for Kuschnarew
and his nephew.

' I think they're talking nonsense, the whole family,' she
said shortly.

This was more than I could stand — I who was to tell all
Europe how his wife was sitting quivering like an aspen leaf
between joy and fear !

But before I could sa}^ anything, I felt a cold shiver down
my back. She had opened a door behind me. ' Would you
like to see my husband's work-room ? '

Now I remembered distinctly what the English inter-
viewer had said about this work-room : ' Here one is
reminded of the saying of Scripture about the virgins who
had trimmed their lamps and awaited the bridegroom.'

' All you can find is at your disposal,' she said amiably,
shut the door behind me, and sat herself down in her own
warm room by the hearth or the fire-place, or whatever it is.

And there I stood alone and gasped for breath. I had
the sensation of being in the ice-basin of a Eoman bath. I
made a note :

' Have discovered the third pole of maximum cold.'

EVA NANSEN— AN ILL-STAEllED INTERVIEW 215

That was tlie only thing I did discover. Such a chaos as
that room I have never come across. Everything lay topsy-
turvy, in boxes and out of them — music and tools and pem-
mican, letters and folios, and under a pile of old photo-
graphic plates. Heaven forgive me if there wasn't a certificate
of nomination as a corresponding member of no less a body
than the Academie des Sciences in Paris.

By means of overturning and breaking up frozen blocks
of books and packages, I got my blood into circulation. I
hauled out a dirty old photograph. It represented this
room. On one side of the hearth sat Fridtiof JSTansen,
leaning forward, and on the other side, something dasmonic,
a black figure, which I guessed to be his wife. I shivered
with cold the moment I stopped pulling things about, so I
crept back to the warm room. She sat bent over the fire ;
but the chattering of my teeth roused her.

' Was it cool in there ? ' she asked insinuatingly. Then
she leaned back with her arms crossed. ' Now you must ask
questions. You must be indiscreet.'

Indiscreet ! Good Heavens ! I didn't even dare to ask
when she was born. I don't know at this moment ; and
yet it's a date that ought to figure in a biography.

I asked about the most absurd things, about things I
could have learnt in any biographical dictionary — not a
question about such intimate matters as the skilled inter-
viewer, who ' knows what the public wants,' would have
pried into. In the ,end it was I who sat and talked — told
her stories about him, stories of his childhood and boyhood,
which I had picked up here and there, and which she had
not heard.

Visitors arrived, who were to stay to supper. I do not
think I was invited, but I pretended that I was. The visitors

216 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

were in tlie best of spirits, the hostess's laughter was fresh,
musical, infectious.

Shortly before supper there was a brief interval of silence.
The lamplight fell upon her face — it was pale. She rose
hurriedty, and begged us to excuse her a moment.

' You want to say good-night to Liv ? ' I said, sympa-
thetically.

' She's been sound asleep for hours,' she said as she left
the room.

But I believe all the same that she went to say good-night
to Liv. I wondered if she missed the child when she was
away from her on her concert tours. Yes, to be sure she
missed her. Had I not heard something to that effect ?

You know that there are things as to which one can't be
quite sure whether one has dreamt them or not. And this
is one of them. Mrs. Nansenhad certainly been a great deal
in my dreams during the last few nights, and perhaps I had
dreamt the foUowino- scene :

It was in an hotel at Gothenburg ; she stood before her
impresario, pale and threatening of aspect. ' Still no tele-
gram ? ' It was not a telegram as to new concerts and new
triumphs she was inquiring about. It was the daily
telegram about Liv. Her impresario tried to think of an
answer.

' It's not late — not more than '

' It's ten o'clock.'

' But Liv is perfectly well — you know that.'

' I don't know it. I told them they were to telegraph
me every morning. The people at home dare not telegraj)h
to-day — they dare not ! '

She was to sing that evening. The whole day, the

EVA NANSEN— AN ILL-STARRED INTERVIEW 217

impresario was secretly sending inquiries by wire. Mrs,
Nansen went back to her room, and walked up and down,
up and down, never resting, and never opening lier lips.
At five o'clock slie lay down. Tlien came the message :
' Liv well ' ; and then — ' like summer tempest came her
tears.'

Was it a hallucination ? A case of second sight ? If so
I must have had a moment of second hearing as well. For
now I heard distinctly some one out in the passage saying,
' JSFow, be strong,' and some one answer, ' Am I not ? '

*• To be sure, to be sure.'

And then came an outburst. ' It's for Fridtiof's sake that
I endure him — perhaps he may write a nice book — but for
that, Fd send him about his business.'

At that moment the door opened. With a jest on her
lips and laughter in her eyes, Mrs. Eva Nansen entered the
room, looking young and radiant, and took my arm to go to
table.

And I sat as though bewitched by her joy in life, a
radiant, irrepressible gladness, uttering itself in laughter
that rang out through the night as far as Svartebugta.

Next afternoon I sat in her mother's drawing-room in
Frogner Street. Mrs. Sars is now over eighty, so I may say,
with reverence, that I love her. For one thing, she is one
of the best story-tellers in ISTorway. She was expecting me.
Her three coffee-pots were already hissing on the table, and
between them stood a basket containing cakes of an
immoderate size.

Here, I thought, I shall be simply flooded with the
daughter's biography. But the old lady seemed to me

218 LIFE OF FRTDTIOF NANSEN

reserved and reticent that afternoon. Instead of answerincf
my questions, slie kept on pressing me to eat one liuge cake
after another. It was clear that my mouth was hterally to
be stopped. Not without bitterness, I presently took my
leave.

' I can't help thinking, dear lady,' I said, ' that since I
last saw you, you have inherited certain not very sympathetic
characteristics from your daughter. It pains me to have to
say so, but I shall be compelled to write under her picture
the words of the Danish gentleman who drew up the Nansen
pedigree : ' I have met with but scant assistance at the hands
of the Norwegian branch of the family.'

The old lady stood there stiff and upright. Her face
reminded me vividly of the placards which I have seen stuck
up on German houses : ' Bettelei und Hausiren ist hier
verb o ten.'

Such were my adventures in search of data for the fol-
lowing biographical notes. I know nothing, I have to guess
at everything. I therefore think myself entitled to claim the
reader's indulgence.

I will begin by retracting what I said in my haste to old
Mrs. Sars. It is not the mother who takes after the daughter,
but the daughter who takes after the mother. Mrs. Maren
Sars, the sister of the poet Welhaven and wife of the famous
zoologist, has probably never written a line or sung a note
— except when she crooned over the cradles of her children
— but she is one of the women who bring artists into the
world. All the materials of the artistic temperament are latent
in her, ready to be developed in the next generation. She has
herself no impulse towards creative work, no longing to fight
her way to that ultimate expression which we call art. It has

EVA NANSEN— AN ILL-STAEHED INTERVIEW 219'

never occurred to lier to seek publicity of any kind. But you
should hear her of a Sunday evening, when her family and
friends are gathered about her, and the lamps are taken out
of the room, relating her strange dream — how she went into
the church of St. Mary by night, and saw all the dead women
of Bergen rise up in the pulpit, one after another, and con-
fess their sins, while the blood dripped from the body of
Christ on the great Cross — and you will marvel to find, out-
side of literature, such a narrative gift. She has deep emo-
tion and dramatic power, an imagination which invariably
chooses the right word, in short, a rare art of oral presenta-
tion. And it is no less remarkable to hear Mrs. Sars display
her power of humorous observation, or relate some every-
day episode which, in any one else's mouth, would be abso-
lutely insignificant. She turns it about and shows it in such
a light that it is all at once elevated above the plane of the
commonplace ; in other words, it undergoes the artistic
transfiguration .

Mrs. Sars's gifts are precisely the elements out of which
have grown up our folk-songs, our fair) -tales, and our Sagas.
She possesse-s an epic-dramatic temperament of great spon-
taneity, i^ut however striking her powers as an improvisa-
trice, she never misses to-day the points she made yesterday.
An unconscious artistic instinct registers them securely.

It is said — for how should I know ? — that Mrs. ISFansen
is passionately devoted to her mother. If so, this is one of
the few cases of passionate devotion that can be rationally
explained. For in Eva Nansen's rendering of musical
romance, Mrs. Sars's temperament finds expression in con-
scious art. In the daughter's declamation, the mother's
epic-dramatic power utters itself to the world, toned down,
modelled, restrained, yet possessing all that inward glow

220 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF I^ANSEN

whicli is the soul of romance. The now famous smo;er has
not, m her outward demeanour on the platform, her mother's
gracious geniality — not when she first appears at Siiij rate.
She shows something of the Welhaven hauteur and coldness.
It is evident at once that she does not want to ingratiate
herself by her personality, but to conquer by her singing.

Made much of from her childhood onward, she has not
been accustomed to beg for favour. And for many years,
no doubt, her singing was simply a favourite pastime, a
pleasant study, a joy, but not an ambition. When she came
before the public she was at once received with open arms.
Who can tell what would have happened if she, like many
another notable artist, had had to battle against indifference,
coldness, humiliation ? Some think that she would never
have condescended to walk that rough road, but would in-
stantly have turned her back on the public and never sung
again. ' Song,' these people say, ' was not to her the one
essential, without which life is impossible, for the sake of
which all must be endured.' For a while, indeed, she culti-
vated two arts, took up painting as her uncle did, and
studied under Bergslien and Eilif Peterssen. -But she gave
it up because she herself did not think she had sufficient
talent.

Her singing made its easy, natural progress from the
drawing-room to the salon, from the salon to the concert-
hall. Her first teachers were naturally the members of her
own family. From her mother she got the spark of genius,
her first lessons came from her sister, her further instruction
from her brother-in-law, Lammers — so, at least, I picture to
myself the course of her development. In Berlin she studied
singing under Madame Artot.

But Madame Artot did not exercise the decisive influence

EVA NANSEN— AN ILL-STAREED INTERVIEW 221

upon her ; Fridtiof Nansen did that. Was it not through
him that the notes of love, of motherhood, of suffering,
entered into her voice ?

They first met in the woods around Frogner Sseter — long-
before there was any question of Greenland or the North
Pole. One day the young athlete saw the soles of two feet
sticking up out of the snow. He was curious to know to
whom they belonged, and when he drew nearer, behold !
a white-powdered but proud little head appeared above the
snow drift. It was Eva's. But Fridtiof s head was in no
way troubled about her for many a long day. What was it
that ultimately brought them together ? How can I tell ?
I know nothing. But I do not believe the legend that he
proposed to her the first time before the great Greenland
expedition, was refused, and therefore set forth to end his
days in the crevasses of the inland ice. Such a proceeding
would have been a little far-fetched for so practical a nature ;
and why should he have taken Dietrichson and Sverdrup
and the rest along with him ? Because, as a chieftain, he
must have attendance on his journe}^ to the world below?

But I am very certain that it was two Saga natures that
in this case met each other. The difference is that while
his nature stands apparent to the whole world in his deeds,
her inner and real self is as though sealed with seven seals.
For both of them trifles are trifling — too trifling perhaps.
Those commonplace considerations which win commonplace
friends are foreign to them. Therefore they chafe and
irritate some people, and are misunderstood. Each one of
us has some dominant trait ; and hers is a passionate de-
votion. On ordinary occasions she can be flippant, she can
sparkle as frostily as snowflakes in the sunshine ; but deep
within there dwells an undivided and therefore potent feeling.

222 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Slie is like Svanliild in Loves Comedy — slie is not a woman
who lias

In hundred hands placed out her capital,
Dispersed it, so that no one owes her all ;
From no one can she crave again the whole.
For no one give her life, her heart, her soul.

Erouglit up witli tender care, indulged, made much of, in a
home possessing all the simple luxuries of life, she accepts
without a murmur ,his extreme asceticism, teaches herself
to endure cold in the ' dog-hutch,' ^ eats his unpalatable
messes — mysost (goat's milk cheese) and pemmican, which
he is testing for the Polar Expedition — or refrains from
eating them, and goes hungiy for da3"s at a time when she
is out with him on small expeditions. Her own work, her
artistic individuality, she keeps discreetly in the -background.
She appears, indeed, at concerts, but not often. Did she,
one cannot but wonder, want to accompany him to the
ISTorth Pole ? And if she besought him to let her do so,
what answer did he make ? Did he find it in his heart to
say the decisive, irrevocable word : Impossible ? Or was it
Liv who interposed ?

When he had gone, she shut herself up for weeks, like a
widow. She lived through this great crisis in the eternal
tragedy of human life. He had chosen what he had to
choose. She would not have had it otherwise. But it was
not in her proud and fiery nature to hold rebellious thoughts
entirely in check. Had not she, too, something else that
was dear to her, very dear ; and yet it was nothing, nothing
at all. She would never, never have chosen her art in
preference to him.

When she opened her door again to the world she

' See Chapter XVII.

Jii ,w v.- %

Bi\

^?li

5p^

•i&'

.miife

EVA NANSEN— AN ILL-STAERED INTERVIEW 223

stood there erect, buoyant, smiling. She, too,, is hke a
figure from the Sagas, and of the same lineage as he. If
she has her hours of anguish, no one shall see her bowed
down.

She has only one confidant — her art. After the terrible
crisis, it took possession of the empty home, gently but
decisively. To sit idle and wait would, for her, have meant
to g;o mad. She had her own vocation and her rioiit. She
was not a woman only, but a human being to boot. Out of
the empty desolation rose the need for activity, independence,
the craving to make a career for herself in good earnest, to
mount above the throng, and stand on something like an
equal footing with him when, in the fulness of time, she
should give him her hand in welcome home.

It was in I^ovember 1895 that she made her first
appearance outside her own countr}^ and her own town.
The moment was a trying one, no doubt ; but the public
of Stockholm, a public accustomed to fine voices and good
methods, received her with sjmipathy and enthusiasm. The
first step was taken, and the road lay clear before her.

224 LIFE or FRIDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTEE XIV

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES

By Aksel Arstal

There is no royal road to tlie JSTorth Pole, unless, indeed,
in this sense, that the ways to it are open to kings alone —
kings among men. The mark of true royalty has always
been that courage which is begotten of will, born of strength,
and nurtured by intelligence.

We do not reckon Arctic exploration among the highest
problems of humanity. Life certainly presents even sterner
tests of courage and self-sacrifice than those to which the
explorer, or for that matter the soldier, is subjected.

But the history of Polar exploration — that battle of the
human soul and body against Nature in the guise of the ice
sphinx, that campaign of the spirit of inquiry, of investiga-
tion, with its faithful vigils through the long nights of
shuddering cold — forms one of the most moving chapters in
the human Bible, the record of our race ' with its destiny's
seal on its brow,' ^ the story of greatly willing, acting, and
suffering man.

It is a chapter of victorious defeats.

Polar exploration is now in its third millennium. If the
North Pole is reached in this century or the next, the boun-
dary of knowledge within the Polar Circle will have moved
forward, on an average, something under a mile for every

1 Peer Gynt, Act V. Sc. 10.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 225

year since first an adventurous galley brought tidings of an ice
ocean in the north. And the rate of progress will reach this
average only if at last a sort of spurt is made to cover the
remaining distance. At the average rate of progress which
even our steam-driven century has attained, three hundred
years would still be required for the completion of the task.

And yet the distance to the ISForth Pole from the beacon
built fourteen years ago by Lieutenant Lockwood on the
little island which bears his name, off the north coast of
Greenland, is no more than any reasonably good walker in
one of the tourist districts of Europe would cover with the
greatest ease in less than a month !

But the ice path is harder to tackle. Even in the height
of summer, when now and then a lane of open water is to
be met with among the floes. Parry and Eoss did not pro-
gress more than some four miles a day. Markham covered
ten miles, and found that his net advance had been —
two ! Endless time has to be spent in covering the same dis-
tance, forward and back, over the hummocky ice fields. The
Tegethoff party, who set forth on the ice from Franz Josef
Land in the summer of 1874, often failed to make so much
as a mile a day in the deep snow. If only the necessary
baggage could be minimised ! Payer relates that, in the
first days after he set forth, he used to return to the ship
when his evening camp had been pitched to replace the con-
sumption of the day with fresh provisions. Later on, the
dog-sledges covered in a few hours distances which, in the
advance, had taken a week ! A reckoning after two months
of toil showed, at last, that the drifting of the ice had
reduced the distance from the ship to ten miles !

The first man who is historically recorded to have crossed

226 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN-

the threshold of the polar zone is the courageous astronomer
and geographer, Pytheas, a contemporary of Alexander the
Great. His starting-place was Massilia, the ancient Mar-
seilles, a city whose spirit of restless inquiry was a heritage
from its Grseco- Asiatic ancestry. Who can tell to how
many ardent spirits the worthy Pytheas, with his Thule, has
cost grey hairs, or at any rate wakeful nights ? Thule
probably meant for antiquity nothing more than an unknown
bbrderland, a meta incognita. The name, originally perhaps
that of a definite locality, was afterwards applied by mer-
chants and map-makers or geographers, now to one shore,
and now to another, which had vaguely loomed upon the
consciousness of the age somewhere on the northern horizon
But Pytheas not only led the first forlorn hope in the battle
with the frozen seas — he also suffered the fate of so many
who have forced their way into the world's great solitude,
and acquired knowledge which their own age is not in a
position to appreciate or to test. The geographical authori-
ties of antiquity attack Pytheas as untrustworthy and men-
dacious. ' It were better,' writes one of them, ' to believe
Euhemerus than Pytheas ; for Euhemerus says only that
he sailed to a single country, namely Panchaia, while Pytheas
reports that he explored Northern Europe even to the
world's end. Hermes himself would scarcely be believed if
he made such an assertion.'

It is a thousand years since the Viking ships began to
plough the North Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Sometimes
storm-driven, sometimes spurred on by the love of adventure,
these hardy seamen stumbled on one geographical discovery
after another, often without knowing how to bring their
discoveries home to the consciousness of the world.

Leif Erikssen and Torfin Karlsevne, on their voyages to

AECTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 227

Vinland at the beginning of the eleventh century, crossed,
once for all, the great dividing line between the Atlantic
Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, which may, roughly speaking,
be said to coincide with the isothermal line of 32° Falir.
This line, the true boundary between the Arctic and
temperate zones, passes approximately from the sound
between Newfoundland and Labrador to the sea between
Norway and Bear Island. Only eastward of the meridian
of Grreenwich, that is to say, eastward of the point of section
between that meridian and the seventieth degree of
latitude, does the limit of the drift ice practically coincide
for a considerable distance with the aforesaid isothermal
line. For the rest, drift ice has been met with south-
east of Newfoundland, even as far south, as the fortieth
degree of latitude, in the region of the Azores. Between
the Azores and the Faroe Islands the ice limit forms a great
arc, trending upwards towards Greenland and Iceland. Up
to the Faroe Islands the outer boundary of the drift ice lies
for a long stretch parallel with the isothermal line, and some
400 miles south of it.

In the stretch of about 4,000 miles between the North
Cape and the south-east corner of Labrador, passing by
Greenland, we. find the Atlantic base-line of the Polar Sea.

About the year 1000, this line, running south-west and
north-east, may be said to mark the boundary of the
geographical knowledge of the age. And for 500 years this
frontier line remains stationary.

Such knowledge as there was, too, scarcely extended
beyond those who spoke the language of the discoverers.
It was not imparted to the rest of the world. The old
Vikings very probably penetrated to polar altitudes which,
after them, remained unvisited until the days of Davis and

228 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

Hudson. Even their discovery of America had to be done
over again.

How httle the voyages of the Scandinavians were known
to the world at large is proved by this circumstance, among
many others, that even in England, where Ottar Haalo-
galsending's voyage to Biarmeland had been put on record

FRIDTIOF NANSEN. BUST BY LESSING

by Alfi'ed the Great himself, Willoughby and Chancellor's
doubling of the North Cape and exploration of the White
Sea, in the middle of the sixteenth century, was regarded by
contemporaries as a new discovery, redounding to the
special glory of the English nation, and comparable to the
discovery of America or the exploration by the Portuguese ol"
the ocean route to India.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 229

This total lapse into ol)livion of a recorded fact may
partly be due, no doubt, to a very general scepticism as to
travellers' tales. Even in ages wliicli had the most limited
means of acquiring trustworthy information as to unfamiliar
and distant people and things, travellers were apt to find
on their return a public which, while it would relish the
strangeness of their stories, and sometimes swallow without
criticism the wildest exaggerations and misunderstandings,
would yet, at the same moment, with the narrowness of
ignorance, reject what were perhaps the few really true
details in their romantic stories.

The mediasval mind, in picturing to itself the Arctic
world, could not get rid of the assumption of a ' great ocean '
surrounding all the kingdoms of the earth. The new
discoveries of land in the beginning of the sixteenth century
led to a change in the common conceptions of the distribu-
tion of land and sea, which modified for the better even the
current theories as to the undiscovered portions of the globe.
These new discoveries filtered slowly and confusedly, in the
form of rumours, into people's minds, and their ideas became
rather chaotic. Some seem to see a polar ocean, others a
polar continent. Opinion oscillates, at intervals of a few
years, between the two theories. One map of about this
date shows a ISTorth-West Passage, a sound which afibrds (so
it states) an ' open way to the Moluccas ' ; another treats
us to a North-East Passage. One typical theory represented
the North Pole as surrounded by one or two circles of
islands ; and a map of the year 1587 assures us that the
sounds between these islands never freeze, by reason of the
strong inward current setting through them — they serve as
outlets for the ocean. A map of 1570 shows a long sound

230 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF HANSEN

separating the northern regions of the known earth from the
polar islands, between which, at convenient intervals, open
straits lead to the Pole itself.

About the same time when the Scandinavian voyages to
the western world ceased, and intercourse with Greenland
was broken off — perhaps in the same year in which
Columbus sailed his ' hundred leagues ' from Iceland — his
countryman Giovanni Gaboto (John Cabot) landed in
Bristol.

A few years later, this true-born scion of the adventurous
Genoese-Venetian race suggested as a task worthy of English
seamanship, as yet but half-conscious of its mission, the
findino- of the shortest sea passage for English commerce to
the rich Asiatic regions — a North- West or a North-East
Passage.

The result shows how stimulating it is to have a worthy
goal proposed for our efforts. Throughout the whole of the
sixteenth century and more, Cabot's idea inspired the fore-
most seamen of the English nation, until Baffin declared the
problem insoluble. But by that time English seamanship
had overtopped that of all other nations, and supplied the
most essential preliminary to a dominion over land and sea
unparalleled in histor3\

In the year in which Cabot junior, Sebastian Cabot,
set forth on the first of the north-west voyages, the year
of the Eeformation, 1517, the port of London possessed
only four or five ships of more than 120 tons ; in the
second half of the same century, Francis Drake imitates
Magellan's circumnavigation of the world, and over the
wrecka^re of the Invincible Armada there sail into view the
first squadrons of tliat wist fleet, Avliose carrying power is

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FEOM THE EARLIEST TIMES 231

equal to that of the shipping of all the other nations put
together.

It is a tragic fact in history that from sons of Venice
and Genoa — a Cabot and a Columbus — the impulses should
have proceeded which were destined, in a rapid course of
development, to lead to the decline of the splendid maritime
republics.

The first main group of polar expeditions in modern
times w^as inspired by mercantile interests and aimed at
practical results. They may be roughl)^ divided into north-
westerly and north-easterly. ' The former end with the
famous Franklin expedition and its sequels, in the middle of
this century ; the latter with that most fortunate of all polar
expeditions, Nordenskiold's voyage in the Vega in 1878-79.

The first series of north-west expeditions, that of the
sixteenth century, to which the original initiative was given
by Cabot, culminates in the discovery by Bylot and Bafiin
of that basin to which the name of Baffin Bay was given,
because it was thought to be landlocked towards the north.
On July 5, 1616, Bylot and Baffin, on board the Discovery,
stopped at the entrance to Smith Sound, the southern end
of that remarkable strait, some 300 miles long, between
Baffin Bay and what we must, until further notice, call the
Polar Ocean. This strait, widening out in the middle, bears
some resemblance of outline to the channel between Europe
and Asia at Constantinople, which is also divided into three
parts, and is about half the length of Smith Sound. We
shall presently have something to say of the splendid pioneer
work of which Smith Sound has been the scene during the
last three decades. In crossing over Baffin Bay, from Whale
Sound to Jones Sound, some days after the above-mentioned

232 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

date, Baffin and Bylot also christened the Carey Islands,
which, in the autumn of 1892, witnessed the catastrophe of
the expedition headed by the two young Swedes Bjorling
and Calstenius.

The practical results of the north-west voyages of the
sixteenth century were the rich Newfoundland fisheries, the
Hudson Bay fur trade, now the world's chief source of
supply, and an immense development of the whaling trade,
which has found its best hunting-grounds in the Greenland
seas.

A.S Bafiin found no practicable outlet from the gulf
which bears his name, he pronounced it impossible to find a
sea route to Japan in that direction. There is, therefore, an
interval of 200 years without any attempt to penetrate into
the Polar Sea on this side of the world, unless we except
Cook's passage through Bering Strait.

The north-east voyages, with commercial objects in view,
also begin in the sixteenth century.

The task of developing our acquaintance with the
European- Asiatic Polar Sea has proceeded pretty evenly, and
without any great interruptions. Our knowledge has pro-
gressed on this side in a much more steady sequence than
on the other, where it has proceeded by a series of leaps in
the dark and hazardous ventures. It was not until twenty-
five years after McClure had made the round of America,
that Nordenskiold circumnavigated the Old World ; but this
conquest of the north-east passage was not the result of
cliance and guess-work, but of a careful and scientific
synthesis of, and brilliant deduction from, the accumulated
investigations of three centuries.

The last name on the polar record of the sixteenth cen-
tury is that of one of the great pioneers of Arctic seamanship.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 233

The English efforts after a north-east route had resulted in
the establishment of commercial relations between England
and Eussia, but had been otherwise unsuccessful, and were
therefore entirely dropped until Captain Wiggins, in our own
day, resumed them. The Dutch in the meantime had taken
up the running, and Willem Barents of Terschelling, one of
the islands of ISTorth Holland, inaugurated, by his heroic
battle with the polar winter, what we may call the series of
great Arctic campaigns.

Wintering in the Arctic regions is no longer an unusual
or a particularly dreaded exploit — that is to say, when the
necessary preparations for it have been carefully made. The
present age has succeeded in minimising the difficulties of
travel and sojourn in the Arctic regions ; but, to say nothing
of the immense advantage afforded by the steam-engine and
by improved weapons and food-stuffs, it is precisely the sum
of the experiences of his predecessors, often bought with
their lives, that enables the modern explorer to emerge vic-
torious from the dangers of the far north.

The Arctic winter overtook Barents almost unprepared.
For ten months he and his crew of seventeen in all lay fast in
the ice at the north-east corner of l^ova Zembla. They had
built themselves a hut on land, partly out of driftwood which
they found in great plenty. Even in September the ice was
so hard that they could not bury a dead comrade, and had
the greatest difficulty in building their hut. When, after the
fashion of carpenters, they would try to hold nails in their
mouth, the iron at once froze on to their lips and tore skin
and flesh away with it. They had to work with their weapons
always at hand, on account of the inquisitive polar bears,
which, with their clumsy firearms, they had great difficulty
in keeping off. Strangely enough, it did not occur to them

234 LIFE or FEIDTIOF NANSEN

to eat their flesh ; but they burnt the fat m their lamps.
The long night, lasting for three months in this latitude, is
one of the greatest horrors of the Arctic winter. ' The
circle of light around his lamp becomes a man's whole
world.' There were two inches of ice on the interior walls
of the hut, and the clothes they wore ' were as white as the
peasants' cloaks at home when they reach the city gate
early in the morning after having driven in their sledges all
night through.' The snowfall was at last so great that the
chimney became their only means of communication with the
outer world. It is probable, however, that the phlegmatic
Dutch character is better adapted than that of other nations
for facing the hardship and monotony of such an experi-
ence ; and where there is humour there is health. They
cast lots for ' the kingship of Nova Zembla,' and the cook,
on whom the lot fell, was duly elevated to that dignity.

Shortly after they left their winter quarters Barents died,
meeting his death like a hero, with the chart before him and
with words of far-seeing counsel for his surviving comrades,
who had set forth, with the invalided mate on their hands,
to make the voyage back to Europe in open boats.

Very different are the conditions of life during a winter
on board a ship drifting in the ice — such a winter, for
example, as fell to the lot of the Austro-Hungarian expedi-
tion of 1872-73 in the same part of the Polar Sea. Payer
thus describes the teriible pressure of the ice : ' Like the
mob in a rev^olution, the whole of the ice seemed to rise
against us. Mountains towered up menacingly over the level
plains, and the light crackling noise became first a ringing,
then a rumbling, then a crashing, until finally it swelled into
a furious and myriad-voiced uproar.' More and more ice
collects under the ship, which begins to be lifted out of the

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 235

sea. Measures are taken in hot haste to enable the crew to
leave the ship at the shortest notice, although the state of
the ice around seems to render it impassable for either men
or boats. It appears inevitable that the ship must be
crushed unless it is sufficiently forced upwards by the ice
from underneath. All the timbers crack and groan as
though in a confla^Tation ; and this intense pressure upon
the ship, with its corresponding pressure upon the spirits of
the crew, is repeated almost every day for a hundred and
thirty days, often several times in the twenty-four hours,
and almost always in pitchy darkness. The whole ship's
company slept in their clothes. At the slightest alarm, the
sleepers would awaken and hurry on deck ready for a start.

In the confinement of shipboard, and unable to make
any considerable excursions on the ice around, men suffer
terribly, especially in the month-long darkness, from
monotony and the lack of adequate exercise and changing
occuj^ations. 'No amount of habit reconciles a civilised
man to the sunless desert ; he will always feel out of his
element in a climate against which he has to battle inces-
santly, the natural habitat only of a few animals and human
beings who pass their existence in eating and sleeping, and
have no recollection of happier circumstances. Contempt
for the cold and the habit of dispensing with comforts are
only subsidiary helps towards self-preservation. The true
protection lies in incessant work.'

We owe to the explorer Kane another moving picture of
winter life in the Arctic regions. The ' Second Grinnell
Expedition ' of 1853-55 also wintered on board ship ; but
the ship lay ice-bound in a harbour on the southern shore of
Kane Basin in Smith Sound. Kane gives a quite artistic
description of the preparations for the winter, and of the

236 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

monotony of daily life on board. We see liim taking his
observations in the carefull}^ constructed astronomico-mag-
netico-meteorological observatory on shore, sitting on a box,
dressed in sealskin trousers, a dog-skin cap, a reindeer-skin
jacket, and walrus boots, while the cold is so intense that
not only his breath, but the mere warmth of his face and
body is sufficient to cloud the sextant-arc and glasses with a
fine hoar-frost. ' London Brown Stout, and somebody's Old
Brown Sherry freeze in the cabin lockers ; and the carlines
overhead are hung with tubs of chopped ice, to make water
for our daily drink. Our lamps cannot be persuaded to
burn salt lard ; our oil is exhausted, and we work by
muddy tapers of cork and cotton floated in saucers. We
have not a pound of fresh meat, and only a barrel of
potatoes left. Not a man now, except Pierre and Morton, is
exempt from scurvy ; and, as I look round upon the pale
faces and haggard looks of my comrades, I feel that we
are fighting the battle of life at disadvantage, and that an
Arctic night and an Arctic day age a man more rapidly
and harshly than a year anywhere else in all this weary
world.' ^

And with the cold and the darkness comes disease — frost-
bites, tetanus, scurvy — and then death, and burial, or
rather ' putting aside,' ' with a little snow strewn on the
coffin.'

Here Hudson perished, miserably deserted ; here the two
brothers Cortereal and the two brothers Frobisher went
' missing ' for all time ; here Barents and Bering laid down
their lives ; here Franklin, who had escaped the bullet-storm
at Copenhagen and Trafalgar, fell at the head of his picked

' Kane, Arctic E xjilorations in the Years 1853 to 1855, Vol. 1, p. 173 (Phila
delphia, 1856).

AECTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 237

company ; here Hall has for twenty-five years slept his last
sleep on the verge of the polar ice under the star-spangled
banner and a British memorial tablet. Who can reckon the
multitude whom cold, darkness, toil, hunger, and scurvy have
done to death in these regions, where titanic nature does not
murder the human pigmy openly as in the fever-breathing
tropics, but slowly petrifies its victims in a boyg-like ^ em-
brace.

After the death of Barents, the disappearance of Hudson,
and Baffin's renunciation, there comes a long lull in Arctic
exploration. A lull of two hundred years — for it is not until
the present century that the search for the Pole recommences
in earnest. The Arctic record of the intervening years consists
chiefly of the explorations of the north coast of the great
continents which we owe to Cheliuskin, Bering, Mackenzie,
and others.

This century has been the age of scientific polar explo-
ration, undertaken, not in search of gold, not in order to
shorten ' the passage to Japan,' but, in the words of the
Admiralty sailing-orders to Captain Nares, ' for the advance-
ment of science and natural knowledge.' It is characteristic,
then, that in this century the two chief impulses towards the
solution of the great polar enigma should have come, not
from men of action, but from scientific students. ' Sooner
or later,' writes Nordenskiold, ' the thirst for knowledge,
which has impelled man to measure the vast distances of the
fixed stars, and by the help of spectrum analysis to ascer-
tain their component elements, could not but impel him
to make every possible sacrifice in order to investigate the

^ The ' bojg' is a formless, invulnerable monster encountered by Peer Gynt,
who afterwards addresses the Sphinx by the name of ' boyg.' — Peer Gynt, Act
II. Sc. 7.

238 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

configuration of the little grain of dust steeped in salt which
we inhabit.'

It is true that these ' arm-chair geographers ' hoisted
misleading signals.

To know the chart is one thing, but
To sail the ship's another ;

The fact remains, nevertheless, that the immense advances
which have been made during this century towards a solution
of the polar mystery may be grouped in two series : that to
which the English geographer Barrow gave the first impulse,
culminating in the Franklin expeditions ; and that which w^as
inspired by the Grerman geographer Petermann, culminating
in the fixed-point investigations of the 'eighties. The English
geographer strongly backed the American route to the polar
regions, the German gave the whole weight of his authority
to the routes by the north coast of Europe and Asia.

Finally, we see how Hansen's crossing of Grreenland, in
1888, and still more the setting forth of the i^?^aw2. in 1893, have
had the electrical efiect of battle-cries. It seems, however,
as though the struggle with the ice demon were henceforth
to assume the character of a guerilla warfare ; the Fram
expedition alone, like the earlier polar enterprises, has the
air of a formal campaign.

What sort of a world, then, is this polar world, that it
should be worth the risking of so many lives ?

It is an unknown world, a meta incogniki, as the Queen of
England called the northern part of America in the days
when Frobisher, Davis, and other leaders of the new-born
British seamanship made their names immortal, and opened
new channels for human enterprise and love of knowledge.

Queen Elizabeth applied the term meta incognita, ' a

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 239

mark and bound hitherto [that is in 1577] utterly un-
known,' to the first historically recorded landfall in the
maze of islands and channels between Greenland and
America. The name Meta Incognita is still given to the
southern peninsula of Baffin Land, close to Hudson Strait.

The main reason why this treacherous and perilous
island-labyrinth has proved so tempting from the first, and
has been the scene of the greatest labours and the greatest
sacrifices, is that until Cook, at the end of last centurj^, ex-
plored Bering Strait, the passage to the rich regions beyond
the Pacific was thought to be incomparably shorter by the
north of America than by the north of Europe and Asia.

Cabot and his contemporaries conceived the northern
part of America, the present British America and Alaska, as
an ocean more or less sparsely sprinkled with islands.
Even down to a century and a half ago, the north coast of
America was represented as a slightly curving south-
westerly line passing from the north-west corner of Hudson's
Bay to Cape Blanco on the Pacific coast, between San
Francisco and Vancouver.

The second reason why the advance towards the North
Pole has, during the greater part of the present century,
chosen this route, is that, up to very high latitudes, Green-
land presents a well-explored coast line. Here a mighty
tongue of the polar world stretches down into the temperate
zone, half as far again as, in Norway, a tongue of the tem-
perate world stretches in the opposite direction into the
polar regions. Thus Bafiin, on the American side of Green-
land, had two centuries and a half ago reached a latitude
which was not attained upon the European side until Payer,
in our own days, reached it by means of a sledge journey
during the Germania-Hansa expedition.

240 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Between Labrador and Greenland three passages present
themselves.

One is named after the famous Hudson, who, after many
Arctic voyages, one of them aiming at the Pole itself, sailed
into this strait on July 1, 1610. On August 3, at the north-
west corner of Labrador, a wide expanse of water opened
out before the explorer's eye. As it was three times as large
as the Baltic, we cannot wonder at his concluding that he
had entered the Pacific Ocean. That was Hudson's last
voyage ; his mutinous crew stated, on their return to Eng-
land in the following year, that they had put Hudson, his
young son, and seven others on board a boat at sea after
the hardships of the winter were over, and the homeward
voyage was already begun.

Between the northernmost point of the great Baffin land
and Greenland, Davis Strait and Bafiin Bsly branch out in
the shape of sounds towards the west and the north.

The western sounds, which have been explored chiefly
in the course of the search for the hapless Franklin expedi-
tion, radiate from the little central basin which bears the
same name as the basin explored by E. Astrup ^ to the north
of Bafiin Bay. Around that central basin, Melville Sound,
the Franklin tragedy was acted out.

In May 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin put to sea with
the Erebus and the Terror, two frigates already tested in
polar voyages, and provided, moreover, with what was in
those daj^s a comparative novelty, steam motive-power. As
we have recently seen a promising Arctic expedition give a
stimulus to Antarctic exploration as well, so in those years

' The latter has been called Melville Bay after a Scotch family, commemo-
rated in ^geographical nomenclature with bewildering lavishness. We should
prefer ' Astrup's liay.'

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 241

the successful Antarctic expedition of the elder Eoss had
given a new impulse to Arctic exploration as a whole.

For five years nothing was known of the fate of Franklin
and his two ships, with their jDicked crews of a hundred and
thirty men in all. Energetic search operations were set on
foot ; no fewer than fourteen ships took part in them, of
which ten were despatched by the English Government. At
last, in 1850, the Prince Albert, which had been fitted out
by Lady Franklin herself, returned with some fragments of
news. The first year's winter quarters of the Franklin
expedition had been discovered, in the so-called Union Bay,
near the south-west corner of North Devon, at the southern
entrance to Wellington Channel. Three graves with names
upon them were the solitary but eloquent traces left behind
by the expedition.

Although in the following years several vestiges of the
expedition were discovered in the coast regions between the
Coppermine Eiver and the Great Fish Eiver, yet the fable
gained some currenc}^ that the explorers might possibly, one
fine day, make their appearance on the north coast of
Siberia !

In the same year in which the British Admiralty gives
up its attempts to learn the fate of the Franklin expedition,
after three British war-ships had spent three years in the
search and come home with no news — in the same year
in which McClure, the discoverer of the so-called JSTorth-
West Passage, returns to England, after having traversed
the whole North American Archipelago without finding an}^
trace of Franklin — there arrives a letter from an agent of the
Hudson Bay Company containing definite intelligence of
Franklin's fate. An Eskimo, encountered in April 1854, on
the Boothia Peninsula, east of the estuary of the Fish Eiver,

242 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

declared tliat a -psnty of white men, ' kabloonans,' had died
of starvation on the banks of a great river to the west.
This was said to have happened four winters ago. Certain
Eskimo famihes occupied in seal-hunting near the north
coast of the great island known as King William's Land —
such was the purport of the letter — came upon a band of
forty white men proceeding southward over the ice with
boats and sledges. The Eskimos could not understand what
they said, but concluded from their gestures that their ship
had been crushed by the ice, and that they were now going
where they hoped to find game to live upon. They bought
some seal's flesh from the Eskimos. Later on in the spring
more than thirty bodies and a few graves had been dis-
covered upon the continent, and five bodies upon a
neighbouring island. Some lay in tents, others under an
overturned boat, others in the open. The report sent to the
Admiralty also enumerates certain small objects which the
Hudson Bay Company's agent had discovered among the
Eskimos : a silver spoon, with arms and the letters F. (?)
E. M. C. (J. E. M. Crozier, Captain of the Terror), a silver
fork marked H. D. S. G. (Harry D. S. Goodsir, Assistant
Surgeon on board the Erehus), a round silver plate with the
name ' Sir John Franklin, K.C.B.' engraved upon it, and so
forth.

There could be no doubt that Franklin's party had
reached the mouth of the Fish Eiver. They would thus be
about seven degrees due south of their first winter quarters —
that is to say, they had covered in between three and four
years a distance equal to that from the south point of Spitz-
bergen to Tromso. The mouth of the Great Fish Eiver lies
immediately within the Arctic Circle.

Another agent of the Hudson Bay Company — the English

AECTIO EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 243

Navy wa-s just at this time (1854-55) engaged in the Crimean
War — found further traces of the expedition about the Fish
River, some on an island in its estuary, some (and these
skeletons) buried in the sand upon its banks.

Not until 1859 does any detailed information come to
hand. In that year the famous sledge-traveller, McClintock,
reached an Eskimo camp on the west side of the Boothia
Peninsula, immediately south of the Magnetic Pole. The
Eskimos reported that -several jesiis back the crew of a great
ship, which had been ice-bound off the coast of King
William's Land, the great island right opposite the Boothia
Peninsula, had made their way to the Great Fish Eiver,
where they had perished. On the south coast of King
William's Land, McClintock came upon a skeleton clothed in
rags, lying as though the man had fallen forwards while pro-
ceeding towards the south-east ; and about the same time, on
the north-west coast, another sledge-party at last found a docu-
ment proceeding from the commanders of the expedition.
This, the only communication ever received from the lost
explorers, consisted solely of two pieces of writing on one of
the blank sheets which English exploring ships carry with
them for the purpose of putting in bottles, bearing a printed
request, in six languages, that the finder will send the paper
either to the Admiralty in London or to the nearest Govern-
ment official of his own country. On this blank form Sir
John Franklin himself had first written, under the date
May 28, 1847, a statement to the effect that the expedition
had wintered at the above-mentioned place. Then, on the
margin, the two officers next in command had added a
further statement, under date April 25, 1848 : they had
some days before left the two ships in the ice to the north-
ward, after having been frozen in for a year and eight

244 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

months. Franklin himself had died the year before. They
intended to set forth the next day for the Great Fish Eiver.

]S[either Hall — who also made a search on King William's
Land in the 'sixties, and even brought home with him a
skeleton which was identified as that of one of Franklin's
lieutenants — nor Schwatka, on his remarkable sledge journeys
in the 'seventies, could discover any further documentary
traces, though Schwatka ascertained that manuscripts had
existed, but had been destroyed by the Eskimos. It was
also found that one of the derilect ships had drifted
southwards through Victoria Strait on the west side of King
William's Land, and sunk in the eastern part of the little bay
in the continent in which this strait debouches. As for the
crews, there are indications that hunger drove them to can-
nibalism, and it is not impossible that the Eskimos may have
done away with some of their enfeebled and unwelcome
guests ; until in the end, as we have seen, a few reached the
continent, where the last of all perished, bearing the precious
diaries, which the Eskimo children afterwards tore in
pieces.

' Franklin and his followers secured the honour for which
they died — that of being the first discoverers of the iJ^orth-
West Passage.' So says a leading English authority, and not
without a certain justification. But the final conquest of the
North- West Passage must be assigned to McClure, who set
forth through Bering Strait with the double purpose of dis-
covering the passage and seeking for Franklin. On October 26,
1850, thirty years after Parry had made his way westward to
the south end of Melville Island, McClure, from a high point
on the shore of Prince of Wales Strait, where his ship the
Investigator lay hopelessly ice-bound, saw the North- West
Passage — looked, that is to say, toward Melville Island, over

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 245

the frozen Sound which did not, as his book expresses it,
' connect ' the two points, but rather obstructed, and will
doubtless for ever obstruct, all advance either from the East or
from the West. A year and a half afterwards, in 1852, when
the Investigator had long got free from the ice, and had made
its way backward to the north coast of Banks Land, McClure
completed the connection by setting forth from his new
winter quarters, and traversing on sledges the strait between
Banks Land and Melville Island, which had been reached from
the east by Parry, and after him, in 1851, by McClintock.
The meeting between McClure and McClintock's expedition
at last took place in 1853 ; whereupon all the expeditions
which had been sent to investigate the Sounds were brought
home, in 1854, by ships despatched for the purpose.

During the last half-century, the passage of Smith Sound,
that characteristic strait to the north-west of Greenland, has
been forced, as it were, inch by inch, each advance being
more dearly bought than the last.

Baffin, as before stated, saw Smith Sound, though John
Eoss, two hundred years after him, mapped it as closed. In
1852 one of the Franklin search vessels, under Captain Ingle-
field, penetrated half-way through the Sound, and Inglefield
was led to conjecture an open waterway stretching right to
Bering Straits and Siberia. Therefore, in the following year,
the no less energetic than fantastic Kane set forth upon his
track. His ship was barely able to enter the Sound, but his
sledge parties, under Hayes ^ and Morton, made their way
over that expansion of the Sound which takes its name from
Kane, and along Kennedy Channel — which was then free
from ice — an advance of almost three degrees beyond what

^ 'Wlio also commanded the Sound Expedition of 1861.

246 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

had hitherto been attained. Morton imagined that he both
saw and heard open sea stretching to the Forth Pole. ' His
ears were gladdened by the novel music of dashing waves.' -^
Six years later, Hayes, with his sledges, pushed on to about
the point which Morton had really seen. In 1871, Hall
made his way on board the Polaris nearly a degree further
north — that is to say, almost through Eobeson Channel, the
last narrow portion of the Sound before the land trends out-
ward on both sides. After Hall's ship had drifted south-
ward through Kane Basin and Smith Sound, the crew were
separated during a disembarkment off Whale Sound, and
nineteen men were carried away on an ice floe, upon which
they drifted from October 15, 1872, till April 30, 1873,
through Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, almost to the eastern
extremity of Labrador, where they were picked up by a
whaler. The length of this voyage on an ice floe was
equivalent to the distance from the south of Spitzbergen to
Hamburg. Equally protracted in point of time, if not of
distance, was the drift-voyage of the German explorers, the
crew of the Hansa, on the other side of Greenland three
years earlier.

But to return to Smith Sound and its extensions. At the
north-west mouth of Eobeson Channel, during the winter of
1875-76, a three-masted ship lay jammed obliquely in the
ice, off a barren open shore covered with" ice hummocks.
This was the Alert, under the command of Captain Nares, E.N.

The Admiralty's orders ran thus : ' The highest northern
latitude ... if possible the North Pole ! ' 'As the expecta-
tions which were entertained regarding our reaching the
North Pole were not realised,' wrote Nares, ' I must, in jus-
tice to the gallant men whom I commanded, express my firm

' Kane, o^;. cit. vol. i. p. 305.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EAREIEST TIMES 247

conviction that it was due solely to the fact that the North
Pole is unattainable by the Smith Sound route.'

Even at the moment of separation, when the Alert
steamed ahead and left its consort, the Discovery,^ stationed
in the bay named after it, Kares thought that everything
promised well for the solution of the problem. Eobeson
Channel was then supposed to be a narrow sound between
the little Hall Basin and a similar basin to the northward.

They went ahead as fast as possible until they reached
82° 24' N". lat., the most northerly point as yet (?) attained
by any ship ; but there the ice beset them again, and this
time in good earnest.

' It is either affectation or want of knowledge,' says Sir
George Nares, ' that can lead any one seriously to recom-
mend an attempt being made to navigate through such ice.
. . . Steamers are enabled to penetrate through a broken-
up pack which the old voyagers, with their sailing-vessels,
necessarily deemed impassable. . . . But no ship has been
built which could withstand a real nip between two pieces
of heavy ice.' ^

This was written in 1 878, before the T^ram was thought of.

The Alert had reached a point somewhat higher than
Independence Bay on the east coast of Greenland. And
here, near Cape Sheridan in Grant's Land, she lay in winter
quarters for eleven months in a temperature that sometimes
fell to - 58-75° C. ( -73-75° Fahr.).

In the course of extensive sledge journeys, covering
about thirty degrees of longitude, which at the eighty-third
degree of latitude means about 300 miles. Lieutenants Beau-
mont, Aldrich, and others explored the most northerly coasts

1 The second of the name ; the first was Bylot and Baffin's.
^ Nares, Voyage to the Polar Sea, vol. i. p. 126.

248 LIFE or FEIDTIOF NANSEN

of the known world, east and west of the mouth of Eobeson
Channel; and on May 12, 1876, Markham and Parr reached
83° 20' 26'' K. lat., about 63° west of Greenwich.

Markham, at the head of a sledge party, had set himself
to fight his way northward over the ice as far as possible.
Camping at night upon ice floes, cutting their way with
hatchets and spades through moraines of giant ice blocks,
sometimes blinded by the snow, sometimes up to their waist in
snow-drifts, with Lieutenant Parr and the pioneers clearing
the way, and the others toiling after them with the sledges,
reeling, slipping, falling, recovering — so they went ahead.
' One thing is pretty certain, we cannot have it much worse,
and this is a consolation.' Well said, gallant seaman ! And
the north wind at — 55° C. ( — 67°rahr.) ! ' It almost cuts
one in two.' And then the fogs !

The shores are of course barricaded by moraines of ice
blocks piled one upon another. From Cape Joseph Plenry,
where Markham left the coast-line and started due north-
ward, with provisions for sixty-three days, he looked forth
over an irregular sea of ice with small but thick floes and
great blocks, which had hurtled and splintered against each
other, often ranged in piled-up ramparts around floes of
o-reater or less extent. Further out from the shore the floes
were not thus walled around, but were exceedingly lumpy
and jumbled up, often tilted at very awkward angles, with
seemingly new-frozen patches between them, and with trea-
cherous snow-covered clefts. One floe was estimated to
measure a mile and a half from north to south, and about
seven miles in circumference. Ice blocks were found con-
taining patches of mud and clay, proving that they had
pretty recently been in contact with the land. During the
journey on the ice, tracks of wolves and lemming were ob-

AECTIC EXPEDITION'S FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 249

served, and there were signs of hares nearly twenty miles
from land.

The exceedingly low temperature when the wind was
from the north dispelled in Markham's mind all idea of an
open sea to the north or north-west. The alternations of
opinion, from one year to another, on the question of the
open polar sea, remind one of the divergent reports of
travellers in Australia, one of whom will find an oasis on
the very spot where another, the year before or after, sees
only the desert in all its desolation.

Markham's sledge party had at last to retreat, worn out
by the incessant toil of digging its way through the pack
ice, while five of the little band of seventeen were disabled,
' and as many more showed decided scorbutic symptoms.'
Their tents at night were more like hospitals than the abodes
of strenuously toiling men. With flags flying and boat-
standards displayed, they took a final observation which
showed their latitude to be 83° 20' 26'' N., or 399^ miles
from the North Pole.

Of the view in brilliantly clear weather from Mount
Julia, an elevation of 2,000 feet near Cape Joseph Henry,
Nares writes as follows : ' To the northward no land, or the
faintest appearance of land, was visible. The interminable
ice pack appeared from our lofty station to consist of small
floes hedged round by broad barriers of rough ice, until, in
the extreme distance, it blended with the horizon ; not a
pool of water or the faintest appearance of a water-cloud
was to be distinguished within the range of our vision,
which embraced an arc of 160 degrees. We were per-
fectly satisfied that no land of a great elevation exists
within a distance of eighty miles north of Cape Joseph
Henry, and none at all within fifty miles, which from our

250 LITE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

outlook bounded the visible horizon. We may rest assured
then, that .... to the 84th parallel of latitude stretches
the same formidable pack which was encountered by
Markham and his companions. Whether or not land exists
within the 360 miles which stretches from the limit of our
view to the northern axis of the globe is, so far as sledge-
travelling is concerned, immaterial. Sixty miles of such
pack as we now know to extend north of Cape Joseph
Henry is an insuperable obstacle to travelling in that
direction with our present appliances ; and I unhesitatingly
affirm that it is impracticable to reach the N'orth Pole by
the Smith Sound route.' ^

It was about this time that the polar traveller Weyprecht
proposed an international enterprise for the simultaneous
carrying out of a series of scientific observations at various
fixed stations in the polar zone.

The American expedition despatched under Lieutenant
Greely, in pursuance of this plan, has attained somewhat
tragic renown. In August, 1 8 81, it installed itself in Dis-
covery Harbour in Grant's Land, near the Eobeson Channel.
From September 11, when the transport which accompanied
it returned to Newfoundland, nearly three years passed
before anything was heard of, or from, Greely and his party,
the relief expeditions of 1882 and 1883 having failed to
reach them. It was not until the third year that seven
exhausted survivors (out of five and twenty) were found, and
six of them brought home.

Nothing but a full reproduction of the picture given day
by day in Greely's own diary of the miseries of existence in
the midst of cold, hunger, sickness, and helplessness, would
convey an adequate idea of the horrors of an Arctic disaster.

^ Nares, ojp. cit. vol. i. p. 325.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 251

On June 6, 1884, Lieutenant Greely sentenced a soldier named
Henry to be sliot for having stolen some jorovisions — to wit,
some shrimps out of the general mess-pot, and a number of
sealskin thongs. He had been previously detected in the same
offence, and warned ; ' for,' writes Lieutenant Greely, ' it was
evident that if an}'- of the party survived, it must be through
unity and fair dealing, otherwise everybody would perish.'
A few days afterwards the military surgeon, Dr. Pavy, died,
his end being hastened by his use of the narcotics to which
he had access. ' Everybody is now collecting reindeer moss,
tripe de roche, and saxifrage, all of which it is possible for
us to eat.' One of the dying men, who was also suspected
of having stolen from the common store, inserted a protest
in his diary : he had only eaten his ' own boots and part of
an old pair of pants ' !

Lieutenant Lockwood, who died before the rescue,
together with Sergeant Brainard and an Eskimo named
Christiansen, had in the meantime (May 1882) hoisted ' the
glorious stars and stripes ' on Lockwood Island, off the north
coast of Greenland, in 83° 24' N. lat., and thus reached the
furthest north point as yet trodden by human foot within
the knowledge of civilised mankind.^ Markham had six
years before reached a point a little more than four miles
short of this. Lockwood wrote in his report : ' To the
north lay an unbroken expanse of ice, interrupted only by
the horizon. Could see no land anywhere between the two
extreme capes . . . referred to, though I looked long and
carefully, as did Sergeant Brainard.' Mr. Brainard, too,
wrote as follows: 'Toward the north the Polar Ocean, a
vast expanse of snow and broken ice, lay before us. For

^ The distance from the North Pole is equal to the distance from Chris-
tiania to the Arctic Circle.

252 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

sixty miles our vision extended uninterruptedly, and witliin
it no signs of land appeared. The ice appeared to be rubble,
the absence of large pal^ocrystic floes being remarked
upon.' ^

There is no need to enlarge at this point upon the im-
portance of Greenland as a link in the chain around the
ISTorth Pole. It is a matter of common knowledge that
ISTansen's successful expedition of 1888 gave a potent
stimulus to Arctic enterprise, while it made the reputation
of the dauntless and skilful explorer to whom these pages
are dedicated. Here, however, a word of mourning may
not be out of season for our second Greenland explorer —
Eivind Astrup — who, but for his untimely death, would
doubtless one day have taken his place with Markham,
JSTordenskiold, Peary, and Payer in the front rank among
Arctic pioneers.

The principal expeditions along the east coast of Green-
land have been fully described in a work no doubt known
to most readers of these lines — The First Crossing of Green-
land. The most notable addition which has since been
made to our knowledge of this particular region is due to
the exploration by Peary and Astrup, in 1892, of a small
stretch of the north-eastern coast, at about 82° IST. lat.

One of the most important and serviceable outposts
towards the JSTorth Pole is Spitzbergen, which may this year
celebrate the third centenary of its discovery by the before-
mentioned Dutch voyager, Willem Barents. The Spitz-
bergen islands were, until the 'fifties, the most northern land
ever reached by civilised man ; and if we take into account

' Greely, Three Years of Arctic Service, vol. i. chap. xxv.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 253

the results of Scoresby's, Parry's, and Nordenskiold's explo-
rations to the north of the islands, we find that their record
was not broken until twenty years ago. Spitzbergen offers,
every summer, a more advanced point of departure than is
attainable anywhere else with equal securit}^

It was in 1827 that Parry, with two boat-sledges, set
forth northward from Spitzbergen. He and his party went
ahead for a month, when it proved that they were drifting
backward on the ice faster than they could shove their boat-
sledges forward. They had then made their way nearly
three degrees northward — to 82° 45', a latitude which was
not outdone till fifty years later, and which even Lockwood
in 1882 did not pass by so much as one degree. This was
the first use of sledges in polar exploration.

On much the same meridian, the 18th or 19th east of
Greenwich, on which Scoresby in 1806 and Parry in 1827
had succeeded in passing the 81st degree of latitude, the
Swedish steamship Sophia, with ISTordenskiold on board,
reached in 1868 the highest latitude up to that time attained
by any ship — viz. 81° 42'. ' We have reached a point,'
writes Captain von Otter, ' beyond that at which any one has
hitherto been able to prove that he took the altitude on his
ship's deck.' This point was reached only by ploughing
their way forward through the ice ; and when the ship put
about, ' there was no direction in which a man, with a boat-
hook in his hand, could not have gone at least a mile upon
the ice-floes.' In this expedition Lieutenant Palander, after-
wards so well known, was second in command ; and, besides
Nordenskiold, several Swedish men of science took part in it.

At mid-day on August 30, 1873, in 79° 43' N. lat. and
59° 53' E. long. — that is to say, north of Kova Zembla — the

254 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

crew of an Austro-Hungarian man-of-war, the Tegethoff,
sighted land to the north-west, looming through a veil of
mist. A glittering array of Alpine summits was suddenly
revealed to their astonished gaze.

At that time this fine ship, with which Austria had
joined in the international race for the North Pole, had
drifted in the ice for more than a year northward of Nova
Zembla. It had on board the Payer-Weyprecht Expedition,
fitted out at the expense of Count Wilczek, to attempt the
route to the North Pole between Spitzbergen and Nova
Zembla, recommended by Petermann, the geographer. Not
until two months after the first sight of land did they suc-
ceed in making their way from the ice-bound ship to the
new Pranz Josef Land, one of the most interesting dis-
coveries of the last two centuries.

Por fully two degrees of latitude the Austrians pushed
on northwards over the group of islands, with their inter-
vening sounds, up to Crown Prince Eudolph's Land, with its
two beacons on its western extremity. They gave the name
' Cape Pligely ' to the northernmost point they reached, in
latitude 82° 5' — about the same latitude reached by the
Peary-Astrup Expedition in North .Greenland in 1892.

The open water along the coast below this cape was not
really open sea, but a 'polynja'^ enclosed by old ice.
Payer has no belief in any open polar sea, ' that antiquated
hypothesis.' A broad white plain stretched to the horizon,
broken only by two distant blue Alps to the north, which
they called King Oscar's Land and Petermann's Land.

Leaving the ship behind in the ice and dragging their
boats, the crew of the Tegethoff set forth from this distant
polar archipelago. They journeyed for almost three months

' A Bussian term for a pool amid the ice.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 255

over the ice, until at last, about two days north of Nova
Zembla, they were able to launch their boats. After
skirting the coast of JSTova Zembla for a fortnight, they
fell in with some belated Eussian sealers, which conveyed
the party of three and twenty to Vardo.

In the winter of 1882-88 two ships lay side by side in the
Kara Sea — the JSTorwegian steamship Vaima, with a Dutch
scientific expedition on board, and the Danish Dijmphna,
Lieutenant A. Hovgaard in command. Hovgaard, who had
taken part in the Vega expedition, set forth with the idea of
making for the North Pole, and also of bringing aid to the
missing Jeannette ; but when the fate of the Jeannette was
ascertained, he contented himself with an attempt to push
forward by the Cape Cheliuskin route. If he could get as far
as Franz Josef Land, he would at least have established a
basis for further advance. At any rate, he thought, this
route would have the support of a coast-line further north,
and might lead over to the northern opening of Smith
Sound. He could not, however, escape from his involuntary
imprisonment in the Kara Sea, and had to content himself
with the interesting observations as to winds and currents
which it enabled him to make.

In 1874 Captain Wiggins began his attempts, indefatiga-
bly coutinued year after year, in spite of all misfortunes,
to establish a commercial route between England and Siberia
through the Kara Sea.

On June 21, 1878, the Vega sailed from Tromso ; three
weeks later it left Dickson Harbour, at the mouth of
the Yenisei Eiver ; on August 19 it anchored off the
northernmost point of the Old World, Cape Cheliuskin,
* the most monotonous and desert scene in all the northern
latitudes,' writes JSFordenskiold. From September 27, 1878,

256 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

to July 18, 1879, the ship lay ice-bound only two days' sail
from Bering Strait, which it passed on July 20 .

Thus was the ISTorth-East Passage completed. A con-
tinuous base-line was at last provided for our knowledge of
the Arctic seas, and a new and virgin region of the polar
world was laid open to tempt investigation.

I mean, what may be called the Pacific side, where
Bering Strait, on the same meridional circle as Trondhiem,
lies at about the same distance from the Pole. I mean that
great tract, with the New Siberia Islands for its middle
point, where, to the north-east of Asia, we seem to divine
the rising contours of unknown polar islands like those to
the north-east of Europe and of America.

As this segment of the Polar Circle, stretching from the
mouths of the Obi and Yenisei, with the JSTew Siberia
Islands and Bering Strait in the middle, to the delta of the
Mackenzie Eiver, has always been the most remote from
European and American enterprise, there is nothing remark-
able in the fact that, on this side, we have looked no further
into the polar world than the eye can see from the northern-
most headland of the continent, and, indeed, on the meridian
of Bering Strait, no further than to the latitude of Bear Island
on the European side. Before the voyage of the Jeannette,
no ship is known to have penetrated much beyond a latitude
equal to one degree north of the North Cape, or to the lati-
tude of Upernivik on the west coast of Greenland.

And yet the outposts of civilised humanity had recon-
noitred the said New Siberia Islands as much as two
hundred years ago, and ever since the time of the Thirty
Years' War small bands of Eussian sealers had patrolled the
sea and shore all alonir the north coast of Asia.

AECTIC EXPEDITIONS FKOM THE EARLIEST TIMES 257

In the same year in which Chehuskin dismounted from
his sledge at the North Cape of Asia, the north-west corner
of America, Alaska, came within the range of geographical
knowledge. But the limits assigned us, which we have
already exceeded, forbid any detailed account of the pro-
gress of exploration on these inhospitable shores.

We cannot, however, omit a passing mention of the great
expedition in the first half of last century, which made the
names of Bering and Cheliuskin world-famous. In the
whole range of polar exploration, and even, one may say,
of scientific travel as a whole, nothing can compare with
this pioneering enterprise of the Eussian Government, unless
it be the enormous efforts and sacrifices made by the English
Government and people in the search for Eranklin.

What has been effected on the Siberian side by far-seeing
political considerations (here, as in so many other cases,
inextricably interwoven with the interests of science and of
commerce) purely mercantile considerations have brought
about on the American side. The exploration of the north
coast of Siberia and its adjacent islands was brought, for
the moment, to a satisfactory conclusion by the expedition
under Wrangel and Anjou in the eighteen-twenties. It is a
little more than a hundred years since the principal points
on the north coast of America were determined with
tolerable exactitude by land exploration. Here, as on the
Asiatic side, further research has filled in gaps and gradu-
ally completed the chain of knowledge. This has been
effected especially by the simultaneous expeditions of
Collinson and of McClintock eastward from Bering Strait in
search of Franklin.

Bering Strait was not really known to geography before
1730. Deschneff and Bering had explored the eastern

258 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

extremity of Asia, and ascertained that there existed a
waterway between the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific, But
that this connection took the form of a strait they had not
discovered.

How ' new,' in reality, is the world we live in !

Only a century before the Vega took its year-long rest
during its circumnavigation of the Old World, James Cook,
on his last vo3^age, had sailed into Bering Strait, and had
tried to force his way ahead both to the east and to the
west, but without any particular result.

In 1849, Kellet landed on Herald Island. In 1867,
Wrangel Land received its name from Th. Long.

In order to make the nations pull themselves together,
and attack in earnest the investigation of this vast region, we
shall perhaps need the stimulus of a strong emotion such as
alarm for the fate of some heroic explorer. Such an emotion
was powerful enough to inspire the search for the Franklin
expedition during a space of two and-thirty years. Such an
emotion set great forces to work in the effort to succour the
Jeannette. Let us hope, however, that, in the present in-
stance our definition of polar history as a record of ' victo-
rious defeats ' may justify itself in the sense that the defeat
of the Dijmphna and the Jeannette may result in the victory
of the Fram.

Of the disaster of the Jeannette some account must be
given, if only because its history has a curious bearing upon
that of the expedition which has called forth these lines.
The Pandora, which had been bought by the well-known
newspaper proprietor, James Gordon Bennett, and re-named
after his sister, was at first designed to strike an independent
course for the North Pole through Bering Strait ; but as the
year 1879 brought with it a keen interest in the question,

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FEOM THE EARLIEST TIMES 259

'What has become of the Vega and Nordenskiold?' the
Jeannette was also eommissioned to attempt its solution.

In the last days of August, 1879, the Jeannette, under the
command of Lieutenant G. W. De Long,^ with a ship's com-
pany (all told) of three-and-thirty men of various nationali-
ties, steamed through Bering Strait, five weeks after the
Vega had steamed out into the Pacific !

Over two years passed without any news from De Long
or his ship. But it was provisioned for three years and
equipped with everything that science and the wealth of a
great newspaper-proprietor could supply — Edison himself
had superintended the electric light installation. Moreover,
it had on board two Eskimo hunters, seven sledges, and
forty dogs. What disaster could possibly overtake this first
serious attempt to reach the ISTorth Pole by way of the
Pacific !

In December, 1881, Europe was startled by tidings from
the Yakutsk district that a party of De Long's men had in
September arrived at the mouth of the Lena in an exhausted
condition. Not till March, 1882, were the bodies of De Long
himself and eleven of his comrades discovered.

The survivors related that, so early as September 1879,
the ship was fixed in the ice, which did not release it for
nearly two years, when it was crushed and sank. For
seventeen months a leak had rendered it necessary to keep
the pumps going almost without intermission, both day and
night. For five months the ship drifted in a circle off*
Wrangel Land, after which it was swept rapidly to the north-

^ De Long, now thirty-four years old, had made an Arctic voyage on board
the Juniata, one of the ships which the American naval] secretary, Eobeson, de-
spatched in search of the Polaris. It went as far as Disko Island and Upernivik,
whence De Long and nine other men, in the steam-launch Little Juniata pushed
forward to Cape York.

260 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

west. On May 17, 1881, at seven in the evening, they
sighted hitherto undiscovered islands : Jeannette Island,
Henrietta Island, and Bennett Island, known as the De Long
group.

An impression prevailed on board that the current was
not continuous, but a mere drift following the course of the
wind. They imagined, however, that it might carry them
past Franz- Josef Land, and that they might thus emerge into
open water in the neighbourhood of Spitzbergen.^

All the men had to leave the ship on June 12. They
were then about 460 miles from the coast, due south, and
about 130 miles further from the delta of the Lena. Having
set forth for the Lena and marched southward for a whole
week upon the ice, they took an observation which showed
that the northward drift of the ice had carried them twenty-
seven miles backwards ! The intervening islands, however,
afforded good resting-points. In September, having reached
a stretch of open sea, and started to cross it in three boats,
they were separated by a storm. One of the boats was
never heard of again. We have already seen what befell the
crews of the two others.

The fever of investio-ation and invention which is one of
the leading characteristics of our time may perhaps be
reckoned among the many symptoms that we are entering
upon a new era.

In the present connection, a saying of that master of
worldly wisdom, Francis Bacon, may well be called to mind :
' Nee manus nuda, nee intellectus sibi permissus, niultum

' Not only was an active search for the Jeannette instituted in 1881 in the
waters and along the coasts inside Bering Strait, but Greely's expedition,
which started in that year, was directed to keep a good look out for it in the
Greenland seas.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 261

valet ; instrumentis et auxiliis res perficitur, quibus opus est
non minus ad intellectum quam ad manum.' ' JSTeither the
bare hand nor the unaided intellect is of much avail ; the
mind, no less than the hand, stands in need of tools and
instruments.'

A complete history of polar exploration — which the
above hasty sketch can in no way pretend to be — would
necessarily comprise a list, and a long one, of the
names of those who have supplied the tools and instru-
ments of which the English philosopher speaks. Many of
these names are for ever attached to the districts and
localities of the polar world, its mountains, headlands, fiords,
glaciers, and rivers, its sounds, channels, and seas, side by side
with the names of the discoverers themselves. Among these
patrons of polar exploration may be mentioned Booth, Grin-
nell, Dickson, Gamel, Oskar, Franz Josef, Wilczek, Thomas
Smith, Dudley Diggs, Wolstenholme, Jones, Carey, and Lady
Franklin. JSTations, too, have given their millions and private
individuals their mites. The search for Franklin alone is
estimated to have cost England from two to three million
pounds. A no less honourable place in the record is due to
the polar theorists of the present century, with Petermann at
their head; and to this category the majority of the explorers
themselves also belong. It is true, indeed, that scarcely
any department of science has been so fertile of fallacious
theories as conjectural polar geography; but it is equally
true that there can be no more wasted labour than a hap-
hazard polar expedition, no more futile and even criminal
undertaking than the sacrifice of money and lives on an
Arctic voyage which does not start from a thorough know-
ledge of all that has been done and suffered in these regions,
and is not guided by a practised talent for combining seem-

262 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

ingly unconnected data, constructing reasonable theories,
and even divining what lies hidden behind the mists and
be3^ond the immeasurable ice fields.

Many, no doubt, are of opinion that all these enormously
costly and perilous expeditions are at best futile and almost
criminal. But we do not live by bread alone. Our mind
requires to be occupied and exalted, our pulses to be nobly
stirred. The ' spectacles ' {cir censes) which the people re-
quire are exhibitions of ideal energy and intrepidit}'' in the
worthiest of arenas, where the explorer's life is ventured for
the sake of an addition, though it be but a fractional One,
to the sum of human knowledge.

OAQ

CHAPTER XY

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF NORWEGIAN SEAMEN TO ARCTIC
GEOGRAPHY

Bj^ Professor H. Mohn

The area within wliicli .the investigations and discoveries of
Norwegian seamen have extended our knowledge of the
Arctic regions stretches from the east coast of Greenland to
the north coast of Siberia, from the 27tli deo-ree west of
Greenwich to the 86th degree east — that is to say, 113
degrees in all.

It is chiefly to captains of whaling and sealing vessels,
who have been interested in geographical observation, and
have made good use of their opportunities, that we owe
those extensions of our knowledge of the lands and seas
around the North Pole, of which we shall here give a short
account.

Discoveries were no doubt made so long- ao;o as last cen-
tury, when the whalers, for the most part, took the direction
of Spitzbergen. Little attention was paid to them, however,
until the end of the eighteen-fifties, when the Swedish ex-
peditions to Spitzbergen began. It may now be said, with
regard to certain portions of the Polar Sea, that the Nor-
wegian whaling-skippers have opened a new chapter in
geographical knowledge.

About the end of the 'fifties, the supply of game on the
old hunting-grounds around Spitzbergen had so notably

264

LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

diminislied that sealers were forced to go further afield in
quest of seal and walrus, reindeer and polar bear ; and the
scientific significance of their voyages dates, naturally-
enough, from the same period. The attention, too, which
men of science began about this time to devote to their
discoveries doubtless contributed to induce some of these
gallant skippers now and again to venture a little further

-.^^^^-^ -

ELLING CARLSEN

into unknown waters than they would have done merely for
the sake of hunting.

We may begin our record of Norwegian discoveries in
the Polar Sea with the year 1859. In that year Captain
Elling Carlsen ^ was seal-hunting in the brig Jan Mayen east
of Spitzbergen at some distance from the islands which

^ Bom in Tromso in 1819. He afterwards took part as ' Ice- Master ' in the
Austrian polar expedition of 1872-74.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF NORWEGIANS TO ARCTIC GEOGRAPHY 265

form the eastern shore of Storfiord. Carlsen was accom-
panied by another well-known Arctic sailor, Sivert Tobiesen.^
On July 21, 1859, Carlsen sighted land to the north, and on
the 22nd he was only two miles south of this land, which
has afterwards proved to be part of the group of islands
known by the name of King Charles Land. It is probable
that they had already been sighted in 1617 by an English-
man, Thomas Edge, who had given them the name of Wilkes

SIVEKT KEISTIAN TOBIESEN

Land. This discovery had, however, disappeared from the
charts and fallen into almost total oblivion, so that Carlsen's
observation was in effect a new discovery.

In 1863 Carlsen, again in company with Tobiesen and
on board the Jan Mayen, did what no one had previously
done in historic times, and circumnavigated the whole Spitz-
bergen group of islands. After sailing along the west coast

^ Born in Tromso in 1821, died on Nova Zembla in 1873.

26G LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

and north coast and through Hinlopen Strait to the south
coast of the North-East Island, he was forced by the ice to
put about on July 27, sailed back through Hinlopen Strait,
and then turned eastward, touched upon the Seven Islands,
and beat up on August 5 arid 6 to about 81° N. lat. On
August 13 he skirted ' along the glacier,' and passed the
north-east point of North-east Island, which has since been
called Cape Leigh-Smith. On the 14th he passed 'between
Great Island and the glacier.' On the 16th he sighted land
to the south-east ; it was the same he had seen from the
south in 1859 — King Charles Land. On August 18 he was
off the south-east point of North-East Island (afterwards
called Cape Mohn), and sailed right across the mouth of
Hinlopen Strait to Unicorn Bay. Hence he sailed during
the following days along the east coast of Barents Island
and Edge Island to the Thousand Islands and Whale's Point
at the entrance to the Storfiord, and onward into known
waters off West Spitzbergen.

By this voyage Carlsen proved that Spitzbergen can be
circumnavigated in years when the ice is favourable, that
the eastern part of JSTorth-East Island is covered by one
continuous glacier extending right to the sea, and that
south-east of this land there lies a group of islands, which
had been sighted before from the south.

In the following year — 1864 — Tobiesen, with the brigan-
tine Mollis, skirted the east coast of North-East Island.
From Cape Mohn he looked across to the western point of
KincT Charles Land, the so-called ' Swedish Foreland.' He
had afterwards to desert his ship with its full cargo at Great
Island, and take refuge in his boats.

In 1865 we find Tobiesen at Bear Island, where he
wintered in a hut on the north coast. Here he made

CONTEIBUTIONS OF NORWEGIANS TO ARCTIC GEOGRAPHY 267

meteorological observations from August 1865 to June
1866, which throw great light upon the climatology of
the Arctic regions and have been minutely registered and
discussed. The seal-hunting proved unremunerative, so that
the experiment of wintering there was not repeated.

In 1867 Captain Eonnbak, of Hammerfest, completely
circumnavigated West Spitzbergen,' and discovered a group
of islands on the east coast in the 79th degree of latitude.

In the year 1868 began the Norwegian voyages to the
Kara Sea. This sea, lying between JSTova Zembla and
Siberia, has been called by the Eussian naturalist, Von Baer,
' the ice-vault of Europe,' because it is usually so packed
with ice, even in summer, that its temperature is lower than
that of the surrounding regions. The efforts of the Eussians
to find a practicable water-way between Europe and West
Siberia through the Kara Sea had hitherto proved unavail-
ing.

The first sealing captain who ventured into the Kara Sea
was the above-mentioned Elling Carlsen. He took an
easterly course this year, instead of, as usual, making for
Spitzbergen, and entered the Kara Sea through the Waigatz
Strait, but soon turned back through the Yugor Strait and
proceeded along the whole west coast of JSTova Zembla,
almost to the northern extremity of the island.

The seals had been unusually plentiful, and he therefore
determined to repeat in the following year — 1869 — the
experiment of entering the Kara Sea. He made his entrance
through Waigatz Strait and proceeded along the east coast
of the Kara Sea to White Island. Here he found the coast
of Siberia quite flat and the sea very shallow. In the same
year an English sportsman — Mr. John Palliser — also entered
the Kara Sea, through Matotchkin Strait, and made his way

268

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

across the sea almost to White Island. He killed an
immense number of walruses and polar bears.

But the most notable exploration in this quarter was
made by a young Norwegian sealing skipper, Edward Holm
Johannesen, born in 1844 in Balsfjord parish, and himself
the son of a well-known seal-hunter.

On board the schooner Nordland, Johannesen sailed first
along the west coast of l!^ova Zembla right up to Cape

Nassau {l^° N. lat.),
thence back to
Matotchkin Strait,
through it, and
southwards along the
east coast of Nova
Zembla to Waigatz
Strait. Thence he
proceeded eastward
to the Samoyede
Peninsula, and north-
ward past White
Island, then westward
again to Nova Zembla,
and southward along
the east coast of that
double island to Waigatz Strait. On this voyage he took a
series of soundings. Since the discoverer of the Kara Sea,
the Dutchman Willem Barents, wintered in 1596-97 on the
east coast of North Nova Zembla, no one had been so near
this coast as Edward Johannesen in 1869.

Nordenskiold justly characterises these first voyages
throucjh the Kara Sea as ' anions^ the most remarkable ex-
ploits in the history of Arctic seamanship,' and treats them

EDWARD HOLM JOHANNESEN

CONTRIBUTIONS OF NORWEGIANS TO ARCTIC GEOGRAPHY 269

as opening a new era in the history of the North-East
Passage.

Johannesen, who was then only twenty-five, received a
silver medal from the Swedish Academy of Science, to which
he had sent in a report of his discoveries. In forwarding
him the medal on behalf of the Academy, JSTordenskiold re-
marked, by way of a joke, that a complete circumnavigation
of JSTova Zembla would doubtless have earned him a gold
medal. It was not long before the suggestion made in joke
was carried out in earnest — no longer, indeed, than the
following year.

In 1870 Johannesen sailed round the whole of Nova
Zembla. Through Waigatz Strait (July 12) he entered the
Kara Sea, and crossed it to Yalmal ; then put back to ISTova
Zembla, and crossed to Yalmal a second time. He had now
his full cargo of seals, but determined, nevertheless, and
despite the fact that the summer was over, to attempt the
circumnavigation of the double island. In this he was
successful, though he passed the north-east point so late
as September 3. He sent in his report to the Swedish
Academy of Science, and duly received his gold medal.
This same summer some other sealing captains (T. Tor-
kildsen, E. A. Ulve, T. B. Mack, P. Quale, and A. 0.
Nedrevaag) contributed several details to our geographical
knowledge of Nova Zembla and the Kara Sea. The results
of the Norwegian observaticms were published in Petermanns
geograjische Mittheilungen for 1869 and the following years.'

Our acc[uaintance with Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen
was notably extended in 1871. Mr. Benjamin Leigh-Smith,
afterwards celebrated for his expedition to Franz- Josef Land
in 1881-82, chartered at Tromso the schooner Samson,
Captain Erik A. Ulve, for a sealing voyage. In August they

270 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

were at the south end of HmlopBn Strait. From Thumb
Pomt on William Island they saw that Islorth-East Island
stretched much further eastward than the charts represented,
and fixed the south-east point of this island, which Peter-
man n has called Cape Mohn, four degrees eastward from the
south point indicated on the chart. In the beginning of
September, Smith and Ulve sailed along the north coast of
North-East Island, and found that here, too, it extended four
degrees further east than was shown on the earlier charts.
Several islands were here discovered, which Petermann has
named after Norwegian Arctic voyagers and men of science.

The map of north Nova Zembla was considerably cor-
rected in accordance with the results of the Norwegian
sealers' observations in 1871, and these corrections have not
since been found to require any essential modification. The
most important contributions on this point came from E.
Carlsen, the brothers E. H. and H, C. Johannesen,^ S.
Tobiesen, F. Mack, Dorma, and Isaksen.

It was in 1871 that Filing Carlsen discovered Barents's
winter quarters on the east coast of north Nova Zembla, and
brought back relics left by the Dutch explorer and his crew
in 1596-97.

It was Mack who this year penetrated furthest east in
the Kara Sea. On the 3rd of August he doubled the
northern point of Nova Zembla, and by the 12th of Sep-
tember he had reached 82^ E. long, and 75° 25' N. lat. On
the 26th of September he passed Yugor Strait, and Nova
Zembla was thus for the second time circumnavigated, an
exj^loit which only two years previously had been regarded
as impossible.

' H. C. Johannesen is also known as the captain of tlie steamship Lena,
which in 1878 accompanied Baron Nordenskiold as far as the mouth of the
Lena, on his circunmavigation of Asia.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF NORWEGIANS TO ARCTIC GEOGRAPHY 271

The season of 1872 also brings important contributions
to Arctic geography from Norwegian seamen.

The land east of Spitzbergen, which had been seen by
Carlsen in 1859 and 1863, by Tobiesen in 1864, by a Swedish
expedition in 1864, by Heuglien in 1870, and by Ulve in
1871, was reached in 1872. and in part ascended and explored
by Altmann, Nilsen, and Johnsen, all three JSTorwegian cap-
tains. The land, which has been called King Charles Land,
proved to consist of several islands. The western part was
called the Swedish Foreland, the northern height Haarfager
Hill, and the southern height Cape Tordenskiold.

In 1889 King Charles Land was again visited by an
expedition despatched by the Bremen Geographical Society,
under Dr. Kllkenthal and Dr. Walther, on board a Norwegian
sealing vessel, commanded by a Norwegian captain. Hem-
ming Andreassen. Their observations in the main confirmed
those of their predecessors. The land consists, as Altmann
supposed, of several islands, separated by straits or sounds.^

In 1872 the Kara Sea was closed by the ice, so that the
sealers could not enter it. Some of them, therefore, kept
to the west coast of Nova Zembla ; and among these was the
well-known veteran Sivert Kristian Tobiesen. He had several
times before, in the course of his gallant career, learnt what
it meant to winter in the polar regions. In 1864, for
instance, after having circumnavigated the North-East Island
of Spitzbergen, he had been ice-bound, along with two other
vessels, off Hinlopen Strait. They had to abandon their
ships and cargoes, and make their way in boats to Ice Fiord,
where they were all picked up by the Swedish Spitzbergen
Expedition of 1864. In 1865-66, again, as before-
mentioned, Tobiesen wintered on Bear Island. When there-

^ See Karl Pettersseri's map in Ymer, 1889.

272 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

fore, he found himself in September 1872 ice-bound on the
west coast of JSTova Zembla, near the Cross Islands, and was
forced to face the winter there, he well knew what he had
to look forward to. Seven of his crew took to the boats,
and started southward in search of some sealing ship which
should take them on board. They did not find any ; but six
of them, after terrible toils and sufferings, fell in with some
Samoyede families who had pitched their tents on the coast
of Goose Land. Here they passed the winter, and managed
next year to make their way southward, till they fell in
with some sealers who brought them back to Norway.
Two of them, however, remained several years among the
Samoyedes.

In the meantime Tobiesen himself and his son, with two
men, had remained with the ship. They were very insufii-
ciently equipped for an Arctic winter, both in regard to
provisions and other necessaries of life. During the first
part of the winter they got on well enough, for they shot a
number of polar bears ; but when, in the spring, they had
nothing but the salted and half-decayed bears' flesh to eat,
and the temperature went right down to-39-|° C.(-39-l°
Fahr.), they all got scurvy. Tobiesen died on April 29 ; his
son sickened in May, and lingered on to July 5. The two
survivors of the crew made their way southward in August
in an open boat, and were rescued by a Eussian sealer.

The memorable point about this tragic adventure is that
Tobiesen and his son, so long as their strength lasted, kept a
diary of observations, made with instruments tested at the
Meteorological Institute, and thereby furnished a most im-
portant contribution to the meteorology of these regions.
The observations extend from October 1873 to May 1874.
It is a splendid proof, not only of a strong sense of duty, but

CONTEIBUTIONS OF NORWEGIANS TO ARCTIC GEOGRAPHY 273

of the true scientific spirit, that, in their desperate condition,
these men should have made observations and kept their
diar}^ up to the very threshold of the grave.

The same winter which imprisoned Tobiesen on Nova
Zembla, Nordenskiold passed in Mossel Bay in Spitzbergen,
and seventeen Norwegian seal-hunters at Cape Thordsen, in
Ice Fiord, on the same island. All seventeen, Norwegians
and QuEens, fell victims to the scurvy. Their sad experi-
ence, however, was not without its fruit. They, too, left
behind them a meteorological diary, containing observations
from the middle of October to the end of March. The
thermometer they used had been given them by Nordenskiold.
These observations have been tabulated, and constitute a
welcome contribution to the climatology of Spitzbergen.

In 1875, Nordenskiold chartered at Tromso the sealer
Prove, Captain N. I. Isaksen, and, with a crew of twelve
experienced seal-hunters, all Norwegians, made his celebrated
voyage to the Yenisei. The Prove is not the only one of
these sealers that has done duty on scientific expeditions ;
indeed, it may almost be said to have become the rule, in
such enterprises, to charter one of these vessels. In these
instances, of course, the captains can claim no share in the
honour due to the scientific observations ; but the indirect
assistance they have rendered ought not to be under-
valued.

In 1876, Captain Christian Bierkan, of Yadso, sailed on a
sealing expedition to Nova Zembla, and there, on October 1,
went into winter quarters in Moller Bay, near Little Karma-
kula. Through the whole winter and spring, up to June 10,
1877, he carried on meteorological observations with instru-
ments v.diich had been supplied him, at his own request, by
the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. These observations.

274 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAN SEN

Lave been tabulated by Aksel S. Steen, and printed in the
annual report of the Institute for 1876.

In 1877 a JSTorwegian Arctic Expedition visited Jan
Ma3"en. The chief result of this visit was a new map and
description of the island. It appeared that on the earlier
charts, especially Scoresby's, it was placed in the right
latitude ; but its longitude had to be shifted no less than
nine miles to the westward. This correction was at once
embodied in the official charts of the different nations. The
Austro-Hungarian Polar expedition passed a year upon Jan
Mayen (1882-83), and were able to make a very complete
map of the island, which confirmed in all essentials the
corrections of the coast-line made by the JSTorwegian expedi-
tion.

The year 1878 brings us to an actual new discovery
made by a Norwegian — the above-mentioned Captain
Edward Johannesen, who sighted a hitherto unknown island
between Siberia and Franz-Josef Land. After sailing along
the west, north, and east coasts of Nova Zembla, as far as
Barents's winter quarters, Johannesen struck eastwards on
August 10, 1878, and on the 16tli was off the coast of
Siberia a little westward of Cape Taimyr. Nordenskiold had
passed this spot in the Vega three days before. Hence
Johannesen laid his course to the west, north-west, and
north, and on August 28 sighted an island, which he cir-
cumnavigated on the following day, before turning eastward
again. Johannesen gave his new discovery the name of
Ensomhed (Lonely Island). It was about four geographical
square miles in extent, and only about a hundred feet above
the level of the sea.

In 1878 an Arctic Expedition visited Spitzbergen,
and succeeded in making a map of Advent Bay in Ice

CONTEIBUTIONS OF NORWEGIANS TO ARCTIC GEOGRAPPIY 275

Fiord, and correcting the geographical longitude of these
regions.

The season of 1881 was remarkably free from ice to the
west and north-west of Nova Zembla. The most notable
incident of this year was the northward voyage made by the
sealer Prove, Captain Isaksen, on board which, as before
mentioned, Nordenskiold had made his first expedition to
the Yenisei. On August 19 Isaksen had reached 77° 35' TsT.
lat., in water entirely free from ice, nor were any signs of
ice to be seen to the north or north-west. Isaksen felt con-
vinced that if his vessel had been of more modern build (it
was forty years old) he would have had no difficulty in
sailing right to Franz-Josef Land, or even to some hitherto
undiscovered region nearer the Pole.

In 1889 Captain E. Knudsen made a sealing voyage to
East Greenland in the Hecla. On this voyage he was
enabled to correct the charts of the Greenland coast between
the 73rd and 76th deo'rees of latitude. Aoaiu, in 1893
Captain Knudsen succeeded in making several corrections
in the chart of the Blosseville Coast in East Greenland.

In 1894, Martin Ekrol, with his schooner the Willem
Barents, wintered at the eastern point of Storfiord in Spitz-
bergen, and brought back with him several rectifications of the
chart. He also kept a meteorological diary which throws a
very interesting light upon the climate of south-east Spitz-
bergen, where no winter observations had j^reviously been
made.

Most of these observations made by Norwegian sailors
in the Polar Seas have been tabulated by the Meteorological
Institute before being published. Notices of all the expe-
ditions and their results will be found in Petermanns
Mittheilungen.

276 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

In the above short survey of our seal-hunters' con-
tributions to the geography and meteorology of the polar
regions, we have spoken only of the absolutely or practically
new additions which they have made to our knowledge. It
is of course impossible in such a survey to give an}^ adequate
account of the dangers and toils and deeds of heroism that
underlie these dry data. Let it not be forgotten that this life
in the Polar Sea, off the coasts of Greenland, Spitzbergen,
and Nova Zembla, fighting drift ice, and fog, and frost, and
storm, is the calling by which these men earn their bread.
It is in the thick of the struggle for existence that many
of them have patiently and unostentatioush' carried out
important scientific work, all the more admirable in that it
was entirely disinterested. It brought them no solid reward,
and the honour — well, that was scarcely a realisable asset.
Of the thirty or forty ships which year after year have set
forth to hunt the seal and walrus in their fastnesses, how
many have never returned ! How many Arctic winterings
have passed unrecorded, how many fine exploits have been
performed that have never come to the ear of the historian !
These men, who, in their search for better hunting-grounds,
have led the way round the north of Spitzbergen and into
the Kara Sea, are pioneers born and bred, and their
contributions to polar investigation entitle them to an
honourable place in its history.

When they one day find their historian, who shall not
onlv set forth tlieir services to science, but also give a true
picture of their characters and their lives, their own country-
inen will no longer stand alone in assigning them the place
of honour they so well deserve. Many a renowned name
might show in truer proportions if the saga of tliese uriknown
sailors were to be wi-itten.

277

CHAPTEE XVI

WITH THE CUREENT

In the beginning of 1890, Nansen delivered a lecture before
the Norwegian Geographical Society, and set forth his plan
for a new Polar Expedition. ' I believe,' he said, after
giving a short sketch of the history of polar investigation,
' that if we study the forces of nature itself which are here
ready to hand, and try to work with them instead of against
them, we shall find the surest and easiest way of reaching
the Pole. It is useless to work against the current, as
previous expeditions have done ; we must see if there is not
a current that will work with us. There are strong reasons
for supposing that such a current exists.'

Nansen's plan was founded upon the assumption that
from Bering Strait and the north coast of Eastern Siberia a
constant and comparatively strong sea-current sets in the
direction of the North Pole, whence, again, it turns to the
south or south-west, between Spitzbergen and Greenland,
follows the east coast of Greenland, and then sweeps around
Cape Farewell into Davis Strait.

Three years after the sinking of the Jeannette, north of
the New Siberia Islands in June 1881, a number of articles
were found on the drift ice off the south-west coast of Green-
land, which must undoubtedly have belonged to the lost ship
— among them, for example, a provision list with the signa-
ture of the captain, De Long, a list of the Jeannette s boats.

278 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

and a pair of oil-skin trousers markexl with tlie name of
one of the sailors who were rescued. The news of this
discovery upon the drifting ice floe attracted much attention,
and it was conjectured, with a plausibility approaching to
certainty, that the floe must have been carried by the above-
mentioned current from the New Siberia Islands, across or
near the Pole, to the place where it was found. It was
calculated that the articles must have been conveyed at a
speed of about two miles in the twenty-four hours, which
corresponded with the rate at which the Jeannette was borne
along in the ice during the last four months of her
existence.

These relics of the Jeannette are not, however, the only
objects which have made the long journey with the current
from East Siberia across the Pole, and have been swept
southward along the east coast of Greenland. ■ A so-called
' throwing stick,' used by the Eskimos for hurling their bird-
darts, was found by a Greenlander, and given to Dr. Eink at
Godthaab, who afterwards presented it to the Christiania
University. It has been shown that this instrument is quite
different in form from that used by the Greenlanders, but
exactly resembles the throwing-sticks used by the Eskimos
of Alaska, the north-western extremity of JSTorth America,
which borders on Bering Strait ; so that it too, in all proba-
bility, had traversed the Polar Sea.

The drift wood which is washed ashore in Greenland in
such large quantities, and is so indispensable to the Eskimos
in the absence of timber trees, has been shown to consist for
the most part of timber native to Siberia, so that it too must
have been carried by the same current across the very pre-
cincts of the Pole.

In the course of his wanderings along the shores of Den-

WITH THE CURRENT 279

mark Strait, Nanseii found on the drift ice large quantities
of mud. Of this he collected a number of specimens, which
were examined by Professor P. Cleve, of Upsala, and A, E.
Tornebohm of Stockholm, and proved to consist of varieties
of soil characteristic of Siberia. Thus the probability is that
this mud, too, had made the long polar voyage.^

These facts of themselves sufficiently prove that there
must be a practicable connection between the sea to the
north of Asia and the sea on the east of Greenland — not,
perhaps, an open water-way, which one could scarcely expect
to find, but a practicable route in the sense that the current
carries the ice floes (now frozen together, now piled one on
the top of the other, and then again broken up and scattered),
across the distance indicated, with considerable regularity
and in an ascertainable space of time. Prom these premises,
then, Nansen drew what we may fairly call the inevitable
conclusion that if an ice floe with what happens to be upon
it can thus make its way across the polar area in a given
time, it must be no less possible for a ship, fixed among the
ice floes in the course of the current, to complete the same
passage in the same time.

His plan was to make his way, with a small but strongly
built vessel, to the New Siberia Islands, and there or there-
abouts await the most opportune moment for making the
furthest possible advance in ice-free water. He thought it
probable that he could get well past the Islands. ' When
once we have come so far, we shall be right in the current in
which the Jeannette was caught. Then the thing will be to
press on northwards with all our might until we stick fast.

^ See Nansen' s lecture On the Coming Norwegian Polar Expedition and its
Equipment, delivered before the Norwegian Geographical Society, September
28, 1892.

280

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF HANSEN

We must now choose a favourable place, moor the ship firmly
between convenient ice floes, and then let the ice screw
itself together around her as much as it pleases — the more the
better. The ship will simply be lifted out of the water into a
firm and secure ice berth.' Henceforth — so the project con-

NANSEN ON THE ICE (SUJIIIER DEESS)
From an Inxlanfanfous I'liatograph

tinues — the current takes up the work of propulsion ; the
shij) is no longer a means of transport but a barrack. The
current sweeps it past the Pole and onwards into the sea
between Greenland and Spitzbergen. At the 80th degree of
latitude, or possibly before that if it be summer, it will pro-
bably find open water and be able to sail home. But if it

VYITH THE CURRENT

281

should be crushed by the pressure of the ice ? Then the
equipment and provisions will be moved to a strong ice floe,
where the tents will be pitched, warm tents of double sail-cloth
with an intermediate layer of reindeer-hair. One can get far
upon an ice floe. The crew of the Hansa drifted from Smith

NANSEN ON THE ICE (WINTER DRESS)
From an InMantaneoiis Photograph

Sound right down to Davis Strait

But if the ice floe should
break ? Even that will not be fatal, for the stores will be dis-
tributed over the ice and placed upon wooden rafts. Then,
having in this way arrived in the Greenland sea and found
open water, the expedition will take to its boats. It is not
the first time jSTorweoian seamen have traversed the Arctic

282 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Sea in open boats ; if your boats are good, it is not at all
impossible to get on amid the ice.

And it is no unreasonable calculation that all this may
take no more than two years. Five years' provisions, at
any rate, will be amply sufficient. With the food-stuffs now
available, there is no fear of scurvy. Besides, a certain
amount of fresh meat may probably be counted on ; seals
and polar bears are to be found very far north, and the sea
no doubt contains plenty of small animals which may be eaten
at a pinch. But suppose, now, that the Jeannette current
does not pass right across the Pole, but, say, between
the Pole and Franz-Josef Land ? That matters very little.
' We do not set forth to seek for the mathematical point
which forms the northern end of the earth's axis ; to reach
this particular spot is not, in itself, a matter of the first mo-
ment. What we want to do is to investigate the great un-
known regions of the earth which surround the Pole; and our
investigations will have practically the same scientific value
whether we reach the actual Pole itself, or pass at some dis-
tance from it — curious though it would be, no doubt, to stand
on the verj^Pole and be turned round with the earth on
one's own axis, or see the oscillations of the pendulum de-
scribe an angle of exactly fifteen degrees in the hour.'

J^ansen finally dwells ^ upon the scientific significance of
polar exploration — its important bearing upon the problems
of geography, terrestrial magnetism, atmospheric electricity,
the Aurora Borealis, the solar spectrum, dawn and twilight,
the physical geography of the sea, meteorology, zoology and
botany, palseontology and geology. 'We Norwegians,' so
he ends his lecture, ' have before now contributed not a little
to the exploration of the Arctic area ; our gallant Tromso

' In his lecture of 1890.

WITH THE CUREENT 283

and Hammerfest men in particular have done excellent ser-
vice in this respect. But as yet no JSTorwegian crew has set
forth straight for the Pole in a ]S[orwegian craft.

' The polar area must and shall be investigated throughout
its whole extent. There has hitherto been a noble rivalry
between the nations as to which should first achieve the
goal ; and one day it will be achieved.

' May it be JSTorway's fortune to lead the way ! May it
be the Norwegian flag that first floats over the Pole ! '

In JSTovember 1892 Nansen expounded the same plan
before another geographical society, not a young body like
ours, but old and world-renowned above all others — the
Eoyal Geographical Society in London.

There was a brilliant gathering, including almost all the
Englishmen who have distinguished themselves in Arctic
exploration, and they are not a few. Before this society, the
first to which JSTansen, on his return from Greenland (1889),
had set forth the results of his expedition — before this
society, which had done more than any other for the ad-
vancement of Arctic research— before, in short, the most
competent body of Arctic specialists in the world — he had
now both to explain and to defend the basis and the details
of his plan.

There they sat before his eyes, all those celebrated
explorers whose names were already inscribed in the history
of Arctic research — those grizzled and white-haired pioneers
of the polar world, the heroes of so many an achievement
before JSTansen was born. There sat Admiral Sir George
Nares himself, the celebrated chief of the Alert and
Discovery expedition, during which Commodore Markham
had, on May 12, 1876, reached the latitude of 83° 20',
a record which only Lockwood had beaten. There sat

284 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XA>s'SEX

Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock, the leader of tlie Fox
expedition (1857—58), by wliicli Franklin's fate had been
finally ascertained. There, too, was Admiral Sir E. Ingle-
field, who in 1852 brought Kane Basin within the sphere of
o-eoo-raphical knowledge. And there, among the rest, was
the famous Arctic traveller. Sir Allen Young, who, so long
ago as 1857, had accompanied McCHntock, and in 1875 had
taken the Pandora right up into Smith Sound to bring tidings
of the Nares expedition — the same Pandora which, under
the name of the Jeannette, carried the hapless De Long to
his fate.

A whole host of other famous polar travellers were
present — Admiral Ommanney, Dr. Eae, Captain Wiggins,
the well-known Yenisei trader, Captain Wharton, &c.

It was to this illustrious o-atherino- that Xansen was to
expound his scheme. His lecture was, as usual, clear, sober,
attractive in its form, and plausible in its matter. But he
here stood face to face with a concentrated mass of expe-
rience, all tending to prove the insuperable difficulties of
polar travel, which could not instantly make way for a
new idea. Practically all of these famous pioneers of Arctic
research, one after another, commented unfavourably upon
the scheme.

Old Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock opened the discus-
sion as soon as the lecture was over. He began his speech
thus : ' I think I may say this is the most adventurous
programme ever brought under the notice of the Eoyal
Geographical Society. We have here a true Yiking, a
descendant of those hardy Norsemen who used to pay this
country such frequent and such unwelcome visits.' But he
could not venture to express any great confidence in the
scheme put forward, even supposing Dr. Xansen succeeded

WITH THE CUEREXT 285

in getting into the alleged polar current. Sir Leopold
feared the force of the ice-pressure, and did not believe that
it would force the ship up upon the ice.

The next speaker, too, Admiral Xares, expressed strong
doubts as to the plan. He particularly doubted whether
the Fram would succeed in finding any polar current, and
dwelt upon the dangers of a drift voyage such as Xansen
projected.

Admiral Ingiefield expressed himself more favourably,
but Sir Allen Young again emphasised the dangers and diffi-
culties, thought that land and shallow water would be found
in the neighbourhood of the Pole, and very much doubted
whether the ship would be forced up upon the ice. His
opinion was that it would be wisest to strike for the north
from a point well to the westward of the Xew Siberia
Islands.

Captain Wiggins, too, was opposed to making the Xew
Siberia Islands the starting-point, ' as they are the most
treacherous, low, sandy, muddy, horrible places.' But. on
the whole, he approved of Xansen's plan, and ended by
wishing him a hearty God-speed.

Captain Wharton, a well-known authority on these
questions, gave him warm encouragement as to his theory
of the current. He thus ended his speech : ' People some-
times ask : What is the use of Arctic exploration ? Amongst
other things I think it may be said that its use is to foster
enterprise and bring gallant men to the front. To-night we
have an excellent example of that in Dr. Xansen. I can
only say to him, God-speed I "

Manuscript communications from Admiral Sir Georo-e
Eichards and the celebrated Sir Joseph D. Hooker were
also read, both sceptical and full of warnings. Sir Joseph

286 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF XA^^SEX

Hooker tliiis ended his remarks : ' I may conclude with
expressing the hope that Dr. Xansen may dispose of his
admirable courage, skill, and resources in the prosecution of
some less perilous attempts than to solve the mystery of the
Arctic area.'

It was not until late in the evening that Xansen himself
was at last called upon for a short reply to all these doubts
and anxious warnings. His answer is as like him as it could
be. Though plainly willing enough to take advice as to
details, he is in the main unshaken in his conviction of the
practicabihty of his scheme. And while he answers, point
bv point, the objections to it, he gathers new arguments
from these objections themselves. Eeferring to Admiral
Xares's remark, that an Arctic expedition ought always to
have a secure hne of retreat, he answers : ' I am of the oppo-
site opinion. My Greenland expedition proved the possi-
bihty of carrying out such an enterprise without any line of
retreat, for in that case we burnt our ships, and nevertheless
made our way across Greenland. I trust we shall have the
like o'ood fortune this time, even if we break the bridcjes
behind us.'

It is, as Sir Leopold McChntock said, the old Viking
blood that speaks in these words.

For it is true, as that famous explorer hinted at the
beginning of his speech, that there is a touch of romance in
Xansen's scheme. It is constructed, indeed, ujjon a scientific
basis ; but no one who was exclusively a man of science, or
exclusively a sportsman, would have had the foresight to
conceive such a plan, or the courage to execute it. A creative
and darincr imagination is its determinincf element.

287

CHAPTEE XVn

AT HOME AXD AEKOAD

We have presented in this book a series of portraits of
Fridtiof Xansen at different ages, so that our readers have
been enabled to follow the development of his physio-
gnomy from the

thoughtful but ^^^,-i.

rounded and un- ''^^'^^^i^^,

wrinkled boyish-
ness of his student
days, up to the in-
tentness of Weren-
skiold's drawing,
the almost painful
concentration of
Lessing's bust, and
the melancholy of
the London por- -vTc^^:^,
trait Avhich forms "--^
the frontispiece.
We here see the
cheeks sunken, the
eyes dilated, the
brow corrugated, the skin lying in folds on the sinewy
throat. One can scarcely beheve that this is the face of a
man of very little more than thirty. It almost seems as
though a whole lifetime were recorded in these traits, a

•5- *=•

r I

SKETCH BY E. MEEEXSKIOLD

288 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEX

lifetime with all its sufferings ; yet it is in reality the
face of a young man who has 'been spared all great
sorrows. It is the unrest of the discoverer, it is the
habit of brooding over great plans, and forecasting the
means of their realisation down to the smallest details, that
has furrowed this countenance, to say nothing of an
insatiate thirst for work from boyhood upwards. This is
the portrait of a man who has never known the beautiful
indecision of youth, its dreamy repose, its vague delight in
mere existence. He has been struggling with problems
from the first. He has from the first transmuted the
freshness of youth into energy, into conquering fortitude.
It is with full appreciation of their meaning that he quotes
(as we have seen), in an early letter to his father, these
words of Biornson's : —

Ungdomsmod,

iingdonismod

gaar som rovfugi i det blaa,

det inaa jage, det maa slaa,

det maa aJle varder naa.''

These last words may serve as the motto of his whole
youth. He has already reached several beacons, and he is
now girding up his loins to make for the highest of all,
which had been the goal of his dreams for many a year,
when that picture was taken in London. The expedition
across Greenland (so one of his most intimate friends writes
to us) was only a preparation for the Pole. Long before
his name was known, or his character divined, either at
home or abroad, he had set himself this gigantic task. The
moment for attacking it is now at hand. Traces of the vast
expenditure of energy it has cost to achieve what lies behind

' See p. H2.

mM_|

FEIDTIOP NANSBN

iFrom a drawing by E. WerensMold)

AT HOME AND ABROAD 289

him mingle in this picture with a deep yearning towards
the unfulfilled — that wistful melancholy which we re-
cognise in the mother, in the creative artist, in the ardent
investigator.

Immediately after his return from Greenland, JSFansen
was offered the post of Curator of the Zootomic Museum of
Christiania University, and accepted the offer. Besides the
duties of this position, an immense quantit}^ of work fills
up the interval between the Greenland and the North Pole
expeditions ; he writes the story of what he has done, and
he makes the preparations for what he has yet to do. And
to all this we must add his lecturing tours to different parts
of Europe.

A honeymoon was out of the question. The day after
the marriage, the happy couple started by way of Gothen-
burg, Copenhagen, Flushing, and London, for Newcastle, the
scene of a geographical congress which lasted a week, while
the new-made wife wondered in her secret soul that her
husband should thus prefer ' geography ' to ' love.' ^ Thence
back to London. In the great city, they let the world,
with its discovered and undiscovered countries, look after
itself, and gave themselves up, in the solitude of that densely
peopled wilderness, to the rapture of existence. Then
they passed six glorious days in Paris. In October they
were home again ; but the sixteenth of the month found them
once more on the move, this time for Stockholm, to attend
a meeting of the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical
Society. This society had, in January 1889, determined to
confer its Vega medal upon Fridtiof Nansen, and it was now

^ An allusion to a comedy of Biornson, Geografi og Kiarlighed.

290 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAXSEN

handed to liim by the King. Only five people had received
it — Nordenskiold, Palander, Stanley, Przewalski, and Junker.
The spokesman of the society, Professor Gustaf Eetzius, said
in the course of his speech : ' Dr. ISTansen has had fortune
on his side in his first enterprise. Let us hope that this
victory may not prove his Narva, leading him to underrate
difficulties, and thus luring him on to a Pultowa. May it be
only the first of a series of triumphs ! ' The speaker knew,
he said, that Dr. jSTansen was in no way j)uffed up by his
achievement, but precisely the same as he had been two
years ago when he came to Stockholm to consult Professor
Nordenskiold as to his projected journey. But ISFansen
might well be proud of his exploit, the speaker continued,
because it was an honour, not only to himself, but also to
his country. It is not on the field of battle that small
nations can vindicate their place in the world, and secure
their independence. It is in the domain of culture, of
civilisation, of science and art — a domain which lies open
to all — that they must press forward into the front rank and
strive for the palm of victory. Here it is that they must
seek for their true distinction, and earn the respect of the
great nations.

So far as we can ascertain, the Vega medal was the first
distinction of its kind conferred upon Nansen. Seven 3^ears
ago, as an unknown seal-hunter in the Polar Sea, he had looked
with reverence upon the gallant craft which had borne
Nordenskiold round Asia. Now he himself held a place of
honour by the side of that renowned traveller, and received
the medal which bore the name of his ship and was, ac-
cording to custom, presented on the day when the Vega
reached Stockholm after her North-East passage.^

^ Nansen on this occasion delivered a lectiire before the Society on his

AT HOME AND ABROAD 291

The Vega medal was far from being the only mark of
distinction conferred upon him. In the course of these
years JSTansen became a member of a host of geographical
and other learned societies, and received several gold medals
and other decorations. We may mention the Karl Eitter
medal, and the Victoria medal of the Eoyal Geographical
Society, conferred upon him in the beginning of 1891. This
celebrated bod}^ states as follows its reasons for selecting
him for this distinction : — ' The patrons of the Victoria
medal, to Dr. Fridtiof Nansen, for having been the first. to
cross the inland ice of Greenland, a perilous and daring
achievement, entailing a journey of more than three months,
thirty-seven days of which were passed at great elevations,
and in the climate of an Arctic winter ; obliging him to lead
a forlorn hope with the knowledge that there could be no
retreat, and that failure must involve the destruction of
himself and his companions ; and calling forth the highest
qualities of an explorer. For having taken a series of
astronomical and meteoroloo-ical observations under circum-
stances of extreme difficulty and privation, during a march
which required exceptional powers of strength and endu-
rance, and mental faculties of a high order, as well as the
qualities of a scientific geographer, for its successful accom-
plishment. And for his discovery of the physical character
of the interior of Greenland, as well as for other valuable
scientific results of his expedition.' -

A distinguished friend in Copenhagen, writing to con-
gratulate Nansen on receiviniy the Victoria Medal, ends his
letter thus : ' If you should hereafter become Commander
or Grand Cross of any order whatsoever, you must excuse

Greenland journey. See Ymer, a periodical published by the Swedish Anthro-
pological and Geographical Society, IX. 6.

~ Proceedings of the Boyal Geograj^hical Society, 1891, p. 294.

TJ 2

292 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

me if I do not congratulate you. Crowds of people have
tlie right to wear a ribbon ; but the Victoria Medal is held
by very few, and it's a devilish select compam^ it brings you
into.'

The Grand Cross is presumably in reserve for his return
from the Polar Seas. Hitherto ISTansen has received the
Knights' Cross of the St. Olaf Order (May 25, 1889) and of
the Order of the Dannebrog. It can scarcely be indiscreet
to add, that it pained him greatly to be the sole recipient of
these distinctions. He felt strongly that his comrades who
had risked their lives with him, and shared with him his
toils and dangers, ought also to share with him the public
recognition of their exploit. It was certainly no fault of
his that he was the only member of the expedition who
received the cross of St. Olaf.

Even before he returned from Greenland he had been
elected a member of the Christiania Scientific Society. A
whole host of evidences of the appreciation of his achieve-
ment in scientific circles streamed in upon him after his
return, in the form of letters from the leading authorities on
Arctic exploration. We shall here quote only a single
expression from a letter addressed to him by the celebrated
Arctic traveller, Sir Clements Markham, dated March 11,
1891. He says of the Greenland expedition : 'For my part I
regard it as being, from the geographical point of view, one
of the most remarkable achievements of our time, remark-
able alike for intrepidity and for the importance of its
scientific results.'

On June 24, 1891, Nansen was appointed Corresponding-
Member of the Institute of France, in succession to Nor-
denskiold, who was promoted to the rank of Foreign
Associate.

AT HOME AND ABEOAD 293

When lie and his wife returned from Stockholm they
lodged for two months with Martha Larsen, formerly
housekeeper at Great Froen, whom we have already had
occasion to mention more than once. Her house, which
revived all the memories of his childhood, was like a haven
of rest where he could take refuge at any time. He had
lived with her during the ' hard spring,' when he had to
struggle both with his doctorial thesis and with his pre-
parations for the Greenland Expedition. Here he would
seek rest and refreshment of an evening in chatting over the
old days at Froen.

' Do you remember, Martha,' he would say all of a
sudden, ' that time when I came to you streaming with blood
from a cut in the leg ? '

' Indeed I do — you had fallen on some broken glass.'

'jS^o — I can tell you the truth now, Martha. You see
we had got new sheath-knives, both Alexander and I ; and
as I was slashing the heads off thistles with my new knife,
I ran it into my leg. But of course I couldn't tell you
that.'

' It wasn't like you to tell me a lie,' says Martha, with
mild reproach.

' No, but there's a limit to everything, Martha ; and I
couldn't have the new sheath-knife taken from me.'

It has been the lot of Martha Larsen to sweeten the
year-long toils of the polar explorers. 'Not that she, personally,
took part in the expedition ; but she was the self-appointed
purveyor of jams and jellies to the Fram. In the course of
his voyage northwards, when Nansen was sending his
farewell greetings in letters to all who stood very near to
him, or had played an important part in his life, he did not
forget his faithful old friend. From Khabarova, Yugor

294 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NAXSEX

Strait, lie writes to lier on August 3, 1893 : 'As I am on
the point of leaving tliis last place from wliicli letters can
be despatched, I must send you a parting greeting, and
thank you for all your friendship and goodness to me.'
Her friendship he describes as untiring, and says that
she is always finding opportunities to be of service to
him and to his wife. We need not apologise for refer
ring to this simj)le little letter. It is not every celebrated
man whose memory is so alert at the critical moments of
his life.

From Martha Larsen's the newly-married couple removed
to the Drammen Eoad, where they set up house. But there
was too little sun here, and too much town, too much
civilisation. They determined to build for themselves, and
bought a site at Svartebugta (the Black Bay), where
Nan sen, as a boy, had often lain in ambush for wild duck.
While their building oj^erations were in progress, they lived
in a pavilion close to Lysaker railway station — a pavihon
which has since been transformed by the painter, Otto
Binding, into a comfortable house with a splendid studio.
But up to this time it had never been inhabited. The floor
was close to the ground, and it was very cold ; the water in
the pitchers froze hard every night. 'That winter,' says
]\li's. Xansen, ' cured me of the habit of feeling cold.' In
this dog-hutch and in this biting cold, Xansen set himself
down to his book upon Greenland — he had no difiiculty in
recalling the atmosphere of the inland ice.

If he took an hour's holiday and became a human being
again, he repented of it afterwards. But he was for ever
going over to watch the progress of the new house, in the
details and arrangements of which he took a keen interest.
The 'high seat' and the bed, in the old Norwegian style, were

AT HOME AND ABROAD 295

executed from his own designs by Borgersen, afterwards so
well known as a wood-carver. The house, which was built
by Mrs. Nansen's cousin, Architect Welhaven, was finished
in March 1890, but they had moved into it long before that.
It was Biornstierne Biornson who gave it its name. He
rose from the ' high seat,' champagne-glass in hand, and
said : ' Godthaab skal det liede ! ' ('It shall be called, Good
Hope ! ')

Godthaab lies in the bight formed by a little projecting
ness, sheltered and secluded, and quite alone. In front of
the house is a wooded and grassy slope, leading down to
the shore, whence the fiord stretches wide and open right
to Xesodland. Here I^ansen had his foot on his own
ground, and could keep his own boat for sailing on the
fiord.

But in the autumn he set off on a long lecturing tour,
accompanied by his wife. He spoke in Copenhagen, London,
Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Munich, and Hamburg. We have re-
ceived from one of the most eminent geographers in Europe,
Baron Ferdinand von Eichthofen, a very valuable statement
of the impression which Nansen at this time left behind him
in scientific circles. We quote from a letter, dated May 17,
1896:

' As I have been confined to my room for several weeks,
and am not yet permitted to do more than the most impera-
tive work, I unfortunately cannot give myself the pleasure
of entering upon a detailed account of Dr. Nansen's visit to
Berlin. I hope, therefore, that you will accept in its stead
the following brief notes.

' Fridtiof Nansen was here in November 1890, two years
after his memorable crossing of Greenland, and a year and a
half after his return to Norway. As he wanted to complete

296

LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

liis book describing the expedition, he had hitherto been
unable to accept any of the repeated invitations he had re-
ceived to visit Berhn, On ISTovember 8 he lectured before
a meeting of the Geographical Society. He was warmly
received, for we had all followed his daring journey with
interest. The peculiar magic of his personality, which never

NAN SEN S HOME

fails to affect those who stand face to face with him, was
strongly felt during the delivery of this lecture. He took us
all captive by the magnetism of his immovable will. We
saw in him a strong man marching towards a clearly realised
goal, and clinging with tenacious energy to a well weighed
and carefully projected plan. We were strongly impressed
with tliis feeling, even as he told of his crossing of Greenland,

AT HOME AND ABROAD 297

and liow he had " burnt his ships " before setting forth on
■what was then regarded as a foolhardy act of daring. And
it was with growing enthusiasm that the meeting hung upon
his words as he went on to sketch in outhne his great new
scheme for reaching the North Pole. Many were of opinion
that the enterprise was altogether too hazardous, and were
doubtful of the premises on which he based his belief in its
possibility. But not one among his hearers doubted that if
the thing was within the range of human possibility, Nansen
was the one man predestined to carry it out. On looking
into the reasons for the brilliant success of his first under-
taking, one could not but recognise that they lay in the
care with which every detail of the plan was thought out,
the sedulous forestalling of every possible contingency, the
physical training which enabled him to cope with all physical
difficulties, the talent for making the most of mechanical aids
to locomotion, and finally, the indomitable strength of will.
Although, no doubt, this new project far surpassed the former
enterprise in magnitude and daring, yet all the precautions
necessary to secure a fortunate result seemed to have been
conceived on a proportionally larger scale.

' Such, my honoured friend, is the impression ISTansen left
behind him. ISTo one who was present can ever forget the
picture of the handsome, well-knit young man who so
modestly told the story of an accomplished feat, and sketched
in such simple words the outlines of a still more daring enter-
prise. Every one felt fully assured that whatever determina-
tion, strength, and intelligence can do to vanquish the hostile
forces of Arctic nature might be confidently expected of
Fridtiof JSTansen. And although we cannot quite rid our-
selves of the idea that the assumptions on which the scheme
is founded are not as yet fully established, yet we are con-

298 LIFE or TRIDTIOF NANSEN

vinced that JSTansen's clear insight will realise the actual
conditions when he comes face to face with them, and that
he will wisely confine himself to attempting what is physi-
cally possible, instead of clinging with stolid obstinacy to the
plan once laid down. In this confidence, we look forward
to seeing your gallant young countrj^man return with a rich
harvest of scientific results, followed as he is by the warm
sympathy of the whole civilised world.

' One thing I must add to my account of the impression
produced by Nansen. I must note the happy combination
in him of a remarkable spirit of enterprise with a strong
scientific sense. These two qualities are not often found
together. Especially in our age of athletics, it may almost
be said to be the rule that the most daring exploits — for
example, in mountain climbing — are carried out purely for
their own sake and to satisfy a mere love of adventure. So
much the more heartily should we applaud the man who is
impelled by higher motives to the conquest of the greatest
physical difficulties. JSTansen's lecture left no doubt of his
keen interest in, and thorough understanding of, the problems
connected with Arctic research. He took especial pains to
acquire and communicate a scientific insight into the physical
conformation and conditions of Greenland ; and he has
clearly a no less enlightened sense of the scientific signi-
ficance of polar exploration.'

Soon after Hansen's return from his lecturing tour, the
last part of his great work. The First Crossing of Greenland,
appeared — completing a book of over seven hundred large
octavo pages. This work, together with his Eshirno Life,
was his chief occupation duiing the first half ot the interval
between the two great landmarks in his career. It may not

AT HOME AND ABROAD 299

be out of place, therefore, if we here say a few words of
Nansen the man of letters, and of his relation to the other
two Nansens whom we alread}^- know — the man of science
and the man of action.

We have long ago pointed out that his temperament is
poetic, that he can give himself up to his moods, 3^et without
letting his moods get the better of him in the sense of
impairing his energy or his resolution. On the contrary, in
this happily endowed nature, even moods seem to transmute
themselves into motive forces and to stimulate to action. It
is characteristic of both the expeditions which have made
his name famous, that they could be conceived only by a
creative imagination. Not without justice does a German art-
critic thus express himself with reference to Lessing's bust
of JSTansen : ' If one had never heard of Nansen, and knew
nothing of his aims and his achievements, if one had not the
slightest idea whose head was represented, one would, never-
theless, feel instinctively that the features here reproduced
must be those of a man who not only possessed fortitude
enough to brave the greatest dangers with iron will and
invincible enero-y, but who was also endowed with a clair-
voyant imagination, inspiring him with the most daring
dreams and with the firm belief that it was his vocation to
realise them.'

So far as we know, this imagination has never been
applied to any poetical effort, properly so called. A childlike
expression in one of his letters from Bergen to his father is
significant in a wider sense than he intended : ' I have really
nothing to write about, and when I have nothing to write
about I can't write/ As an author, Nansen cannot make
something out of nothing — he cannot create. He never
takes up his pen until he has something to write about,

300 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

whether it be an adventure or a scientific observation. But
when he has matter to keep him going, he at once proves
himself an extremely lively narrator. He takes such
pleasure, indeed, in the recollection of an interesting
experience, that he is apt to overload his presentation with
details, to the injury of the general artistic impression. But
his inborn talent is unmistakable. One can trace, even in
his very early writings, the effects of a long communion with
I^ature ; where it has seriousty taken hold of him, every-
thing inessential falls away, and the lines of his picture
become large and potent, like the lines of a snow-clad
mountain.^

If we look into his style in The First Crossing of
Greenland, we can still recognise these characteristics of his
first attempts at authorship. This life in the open air is so
dear to him in all its details that he dwells upon even
the smallest of them — sometimes with an almost boyish
delight. But here, too, we can everywhere discern, when
the action culminates, or when the love of Nature inspires
him, a rare faculty of description, a noteworthy talent for
narrative. As a snow-shoer presents his most typical aspect
at the moment of ' the great leap,' when every nerve is
strained for the decisive effort, so is it with Hansen's style.
It is at salient points, where it dashes ahead at lightning
speed, and every word goes straight to the mark, that it
most deeply impresses us. But here, in his first carefully
elaborated performance, we can also recognise with pleasure
the even flow of the narration throughout. The work is
very broadly planned, too broadly, if we look at it from the
artistic point of view alone. If romantic interest were the

' See the extracts in Cluipter V. from A Tour on Snow-shoes from Voss to
Christiania.

AT HOME AND ABROAD 301

main thing to be aimed at, the drift-voyage along the coast,
and the actual crossing of the inland ice should, of course,
form the real substance of the book, set in the shghtest
possible frame. But it is not his object to produce a work
of art in this sense. He is composing a geographical
document, the report of an enterprise undertaken in the
cause of science ; and, for science, the material history of
the scheme, its context, so to speak, and its details, are of
the greatest interest. When an artist sets about painting
an animal, he selects and emphasises its essential features,
so as to make an effective picture of it ; whereas the
descriptive naturalist is bound to reproduce every possible
detail. In constructing this book, Nansen was in the
position of the naturalist rather than the artist. It is not
written simply for the amusement of an idle public ; it is a
link in the chain of geographical research, the experiences it
describes are to serve as a guide for others, and precisely
what the general reader thinks superfluous may be of
decisive moment for the Arctic traveller of the future. The
reader who cares only for assthetic enjoyment, and is
impatient to come to the exciting parts, may think it
unnecessary to go so minutely into the equipment of the
expedition ; but for the man of science, and for future
explorers of unknown ice fields, every word will have its
significance. A chapter of some sixty pages devoted to
snow-shoeing, its history and development, may seem to
delay the narrative disproportionatel}^ ; but when we
remember that it was in the Greenland Expedition that the
Norwegian snow-shoe made its first appearance in the
history of science — in military history it had already played
a part — such a chapter cannot be regarded as out of place,
in this book of all others. The same may be said, with still

302 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

greater justice, of tlie liistoric surveys ; they are absolutely
necessary in order to place the main matter of the book in
its right perspective. The fact that Nansen succeeds in
retaining our interest through all these heterogeneous
chapters is due to the unflagging animation of his style, the
clearness of his exposition, in short, to his unusual talent
for treating science popularly. In our literature, which is
specially poor in this department, he takes an eminent
place.

At the end of his First Crossing of Greenland, he prints
some extracts from his diary at Sardlok and Kangek. ' It
is no active life I am leading here,' he says ; ' in fact, I am
fast turning Eskimo. I live as the natives do, eat their
food, and am learning to appreciate such dainties as raw
blubber, raw halibut skin, frozen crowberries mixed with
rancid blubber, and so on. I talk to the people as well as
I can, go out in my kaiak, fish, and shoot on land and water.
In fact, I begin to see that there is really nothing to prevent
a European turning Eskimo, if he only has his time before
him.'

He devoted himself to the unusual sport of drawing
halibut — the same halibut — three or four times up to the
surface from a depth of a hundred fathoms, in such cold
that his cheeks, nose, and chin were in danger of being-
frost-bitten. At the end of February he was at Kangek. ' It
is delightful,' he writes, ' to see the days lengthening, and the
sea shimmering in the rising sun, to feel it shine almost
warmly, to go out seal-hunting in the grey of the morning,
and to return in the evening with the daylight not yet quite
spent. Society, steam, great thoughts, and great misery —
all lie far, far away. To roam at large and enjoy life — that
is our sole concern.'

AT HOME AND ABROAD

;0;

ouo

The Greenlanders themselves have given a sketch ^ of
Nanseii and his comrades which deserves to be quoted.
' ISTansen was unusually clever,' says the writer, ' at learning
the language ; for although it was only six and a half months
since he landed here, he could understand almost every-
thing, and whether he was out in the surf helping to beach
our kaiaks, or visiting us in
our houses, he spoke without
much difficulty, and so that we
could easily understand him, as
he understood us.

' We missed them all terribh^
when they went away ; they
were such handsome fellows it
did us good to look at them,
and they took to us in return,
so that we came almost to re-
gard them as our own country-
men. We went and visited
them whenever we pleased ; and
besides, they were not at all
particular, but ate almost any-
thing we gave them, except
rotten, fermenting things, and
said that they liked it.' Nan-
sen, the writer continues, was very soon able to manage
a kaiak without any special appliances for safety. ' He
would accompany us both in stormy weather and when we
were going to be out far into the night, paddling with the
best of us.'

:{f

\:k4.

SKETCH BY E. WERENSKIOLD

^ Translated by Mrs. S. Rink from the Greenland newspaper, Atua-
gagdliutit.

304 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

When ISTansen had finished his account of the journey
across Greenland, he recorded in detail his impressions of
the Greenland natives in his book entitled Eskimo Life
(1891). This is not only an excellently written and un-
usually interesting book, but also a most important docu-
ment towards the elucidation of Nansen's character. He
quotes in the preface the old saying : ' Amicus Plato, amicus
Socrates, magis arnica Veritas ; ' and he tells what he believes
to be the truth with characteristic courage, and here and
there with a recklessness which is perhaps no less character-
istic. His views on Christianity and Christian Missions are
so diametrically opposed to the accepted doctrines that if
he had had popularity in view he would never have written
this book, or at any rate would have kept his heresies in
the background, and aimed at an objectivity which should
wound people less. But it was not in his nature to do so.
On the contrary, he gave free rein to his enthusiasm "on the
one hand, and to his defiant youthful audacity on the other.
There can be no doubt that where he sets about weighing the
civilised man and the child of nature against each other his
own character gets in his light and prevents him from taking
a quite impartial view of things. But for that very reason
the book becomes a valuable piece of self-revelation.

Nansen is of course right when he dwells upon the sins
of which so-called civilisation has been guilty in its dealings
with the primitive races. ' What has become of the Indians ?
What of the once so haughty Mexicans, or the highly gifted
Incas of Peru ? Where are the aborigines of Tasmania and
the native races of Australia ? Soon there will not be a
single one of them left to raise an accusing voice against the
race which has brought them to destruction ? ' ^

^ Esldmo Life, p. 341.

AT HOME AND ABROAD 305

Every day the newspapers bring us accounts of outrages
committed in the name of civilisation, which fill one with
indignant horror. But when JSFansen places himself entirely on
the side of barbarism, when he represents it as a misfortune
that the Eskimos should have learnt to read and write, because
they cannot possibly devote time to these acquirements
without sacrificing some of their expertness as seal-hunters,
many people will be unable to follow him. There is, as it
seems to us, something too individual in this point of view.

What, then, can induce Nansen, the man of science, the
explorer, one of the dauntless pioneers of civilisation, to talk
of its ' venomous sting,' and so forth ? One is tempted to
ask whether any event in his life has embittered him against
society ? We know of no such event. There is one utter-
ance in Eskimo Life that might lend itself to misunder-
standing in this sense. ' When I see all the wrangling and
all the coarse abuse of opponents which form the staple of
the different party newspapers at home, I now and then
wonder what these worthy politicians would say if they knew
anything of the Eskimo community, and whether they would
not blush before the people whom that man of God, Hans
Egede, characterised as follows : ' These ignorant, cold-
blooded creatures, living without order or discipline, with
no knowledge of any sort of worship, in brutish stupidity.'
With what good right would these savages look down upon
us, if they knew that here, even in the public press, we
applied to each other the lowest terms of contumely, as for
example, 'liar,' 'traitor,' 'perjurer,' 'lout,' 'rowdy,' &c. ?
while they never utter a syllable of abuse, their very lan-
guage being unprovided with words of this class, in which
ours is so rich.' ^

1 Eskimo Life, p. 100.

306 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

This passage no doubt came straight from the heart ; for
ISTansen himself is of a t3^pe more akin to the old Norsemen
than to certain of their descendants, in whom the lust of
battle has degenerated into mere quarrelsomeness, and who
cannot strike, but rather scratch and claw. He is of a largely-
moulded and at the same time gentle nature, such as we find
in the Sagas, self-confident, and determined to follow his own
path, but without a trace of low pugnacity. The goals he
has set himself are too great to permit of any pettiness.
Like the Greenlanders, he ' cannot afibrd to waste time in
squabbling.'

Personally, therefore, he has always held aloof from this
trumpery warfare. The troll-urchins in the Dovre-King's
Hall ^ have never really molested him. When he wrote his
book about the Eskimos, he had no quarrel whatever either
with humanity in general, or with Norwegian society in par-
ticular. But all the influences of his childhood and his youth
attracted him to the primitive forms of life. To ' roam at
large' and to 'enjoy life' are for him synon3anous. To
most of us, the privations involved in life in an Eskimo hut
would be unendurable, Avhile its filthiness would revolt us.
To him, these things are trifles. He has been accustomed
from childhood upwards to go without food for long periods,
and then to eat whatever comes in his way. House, hut, or
tent — it is all the same to him. The joys of action and
achievement await him without. He can dash with his
kaiak into the jaws of the tempest, he can stalk the walrus
and the polar bear — all in the midst of vast natural sur-
roundings. He is attached to this people because it is
amiable, warm-hearted, and full of brotherly kindness and
true Christian charity. But he is also filled with admiration

1 See Peer Gynt, Act. II. Sc. 6.

AT HOME AND ABROAD 307

for it, because it has conquered sucli hard natural conditions.
For the conquest of nature is, in his eyes, ' the great problem
of humanity.' ' To some people,' he writes, ' existence is so
easy that they need only plant a bread-fruit tree in their,
youth, and their whole life is provided for. Others, again,
seem to be denied everything except the strength to battle
for life ; they must laboriously wring from hostile nature
every mouthful of their sustenance. They are sent forth to
the outposts, these people ; they form the wings of the great
army of humanity in its constant struggle for the subjugation
of nature.

' Such a people are the Eskimos, and among the most
remarkable in existence. The}^ are a living proof of the •
rare faculty of the human being for adapting himself to
circumstances and spreading over the face of the earth. The
Eskimo forms the extreme outpost towards the infinite still-
ness of the regions of ice, and as far almost as we have
forced our way to the northward we find traces left behind
them by this hardy race. The tracts which all others de-
spise, the Eskimo has made his own. By dint of constant
struggle and slow development, he has learnt some things
that none have learnt better.' ^

Here we are at the very heart of the matter. It is not
misanthropy, but a peculiar dual feeling towards ISTature,
which inspires jSTansen with his boundless sympathy for these
primitive people. It is a feeling akin to that of the male for
the female : he loves her, he will conquer her. For most of
us, it is civilisation that brings with it the enjoyments which
humanise existence : art, literature, social intercourse, all
that lends beauty to life. Nansen is no barbarian ; he is
devoted to science, and he can appreciate art. But for him;

^ Eskimo Life, p. 4. '^ "

308 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

the enjoyments of civilisation have always taken a second
place in comparison witli work in its service. Work —
whether with the microscope or in the kaiak — is the Alpha
and Omega of his creed. That is why, in his eyes, it
would be no misfortune for the Eskimos to be unable to read
and write. They would have all the more time to become
experts in their vocation, and to subjugate nature.

If we consider the amount of reading involved in the
preparation for these books, we see that they represent a very
respectable sum total of work. This, however, was no more
than quiet mental occupation, which does not take too much
out of a man. What especially occupied him in these years
was the preparations for the Polar Expedition. The equip-
ment involved an immense expenditure of thought — from the
construction of the ship to the minutest detail of the com-
missariat. Even the selection of the crew must have meant
a great deal of correspondence — no fewer than 150 foreigners
applied for leave to join the expedition. The list is headed
by Englishmen and Americans, then come Germans, Danes,
Swedes and Finns, Italians and Frenchmen, &c. A Venetian
wrote : ' Oh, monsieur, faites-moi vivre, ce que j'appelle
vivre, et ne me condamnez pas a languir ! Par priere ! ! '

But all this he himself, we confidently hope, will one day
relate in his book upon the Polar Expedition. We will not
anticipate him, and merely note that the labour was enor-
mous. Everything had to pass through his head, every one
of the thousand details. Compared with this mental toil, the
labour of dras'^ingf the sledo"es over the Greenland ice fields
was little more than child's play. It engrossed him day and
night, and encroached terribly on the few hours that were
left for his home and his family. The strain upon his vital

AT HOME AND ABROAD 309

force was incomparably greater than in any of his previous
efforts.

In the beginning of 1892 he again set forth on a lec-
turing tour, this time in England, the profits going to the
expedition fund. He spoke in London and in the other great
towns of England, Scotland, and Ireland, visiting Liverpool,
Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Hull, Newcastle, Edin-
burgh, Belfast, Dublin, Bristol, and many other places.

' His lectures,' writes a friend in England, ' were highly
appreciated and made a great success. His mastery of the
English language was remarkable. He made himself
thoroughly heard and understood. Of course he read his
addresses ; but to my thinking his speaking was most effec-
tive when, at the end of his last lecture before the Royal
Geographical Society, he laid his manuscript aside. It was,
in a sense, a farewell to England, inspired by a depth of feel-
ing which stirred his audience to enthusiasm. I can assure
you that when ISTansen returns, a magnificent reception awaits
him in this country.'

Late in the autumn of this year his ship was launched.

' A whole troop of invited guests,' writes Gustaf Eetzius,
in the Aftonhlad for November 3, 1892, ' took the morning
train on October 26, from Christiania to Laurvik. There
had been ten degrees of frost in the night ; snow had fallen,
and a thin white veil lay over hill and valley. Gradually
the mists dispersed, and the morning sun shone out with the
peculiar softened splendour characteristic of a clear winter
day. Nansen himself receives us at Laurvik station, and
leads us to a whale-boat, lying at the pier, with a crow's-nest
at its foretop. It carries us down the fiord, then turns to
the left and runs in shore. Here, in Esekevik Bay, lies the
hull of a ship, shored up on the beach, with its stern to the

310 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

sea. It is Fridtiof Hansen's new sliip, which is now to go off
the stocks. The hull is high and broad, black below, white
above. The three goodly masts of American pitch-pine are
still lying alongside her on the wharf. Three flagstafFs have
been erected on tlie deck, two with flags, the one in the
middle without. It is reserved for the pennant bearing the
ship's as yet unknown name, which is to be hoisted after the
christening. There are many speculations as to what the
name is to be. People guess Eva, Leif, Norge, and Nord-
'polen.

' Thousands of spectators have gathered around Colin
Archer's wharf, thousands have clambered up on the rocks.
But round the great vessel lying shored up on the slips
stand groups of sturdy figures in working clothes, with
grizzled hair and furrowed features, carefully examining
her lines and build. These are whalers and seal-hunters
who have year after year braved the dangers of the Polar
Sea. There are also many workmen among them, ship's-
carpenters who have helped in the building, and who now
regard their work with just satisfaction. But the master
builder is the stately man with the serious refined features
and the long white beard. It is Colin Archer.

' Fridtiof Nansen, followed by his wife, now mounts a
platform erected close to the vessel's bows. Mrs. Nansen
steps forward, breaks a champagne bottle against the stem
at one strong blow, and says loud and clear : ' Fram skal den
]iede ' — ' She shall be called Fram.' ^ At the same moment the
Hag is hoisted on the unoccupied flagstaff, and the word can
be read in white letters upon a red ground. The last moor-
ings are now cpiickly cast off, the last supports knocked
away, and the great vessel glides, at first slowly, then

' Fram - Forwards.

AT HOME AND ABEOAD 311

quicker and quicker, stern-foremost, down the sharply sloping
groove which leads to the water. It plunges deeper and
deeper. For a moment it almost seems as though it were
going to sink, or at any rate to strike the bottom. But as
the stem approaches the water the stern rises, and finally the
whole vessel floats away, to be brought back in a few
minutes, laid alongside the wharf, and there moored. At
the moment when the whole bulk of the ship had taken the
water, a great wave swept shoreward and washed over the
rocks and over the onlookers who had perched themselves
close to the sea. We could see them from the distance
scrambling like wet flies up the slippery rocks. A large
boat which had been swept ashore by the wave was with
difficulty saved, but without misadventure.

' On the platform, by his wife's side, Fridtiof Nansen
stood tall and erect, and watched the scene. All eyes were
bent upon them. We could not but think what their feel-
ings must have been at the moment when the vessel glided
into the sea : feelings of gladness that the j)rologue to the
long dark drama that was to be enacted in the polar night
was now happily concluded ; feelings of pain at the thought
of the long separation that lay before them.

' For all who were present, it was a moment of deep
emotion when, amid the booming of guns and the thunder-
ing cheers of the multitude, the Fram plunged into the sea
and rose again proudly in its freedom. Many were after-
wards heard to say that it was one of the most impressive
experiences of their lives. As the ship glided forth in the
silvery light reflected from the calm surface of the sea, we
seemed, in a flash of foresight, to be reading the Saga of the
future. We seemed to glance down the vista of her destiny,
to see her, in waters no keel has yet furrowed, spreading

312 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

light over regions no eye has yet seen. And when we came
to think of the stern reahties which must one day surround
the vessel and its crew on their daring quest, the cold, the
darkness, the storms, the icebergs, and all that follows in
their train, we could not but feel a touch of awe. But in
Fridtiof Nansen's serene, unembarrassed, steadfast glance,
there was no trace of doubt or anxiety. He has the faith
and the will-power that can move mountains.'

Colin Archer, the builder of the Fram, belongs to a
Scotch family. His name is widely known and highly
respected in I^orway. ' It is not many years since our pilot
boats were sadly deficient in point both of speed and of
safety. They were neither well built nor well designed for
the work they had to do, so that it frequently happened that
the boat went down and took the pilot with it. Mr. Archer
devoted himself to the task of furnishing our pilots with a
faster and safer sea-boat. After more than twenty years'
work, he has met with such success that the pilot can now
face almost any weather in one of his boats, and that those
he leaves at home need no longer tremble and turn pale when
the surf is lashing and the storm sweeping over the sea.' ^

In a speech which he made that day, Mr. Archer said that
he would never have been able to solve this peculiar problem,
so unlike any that he had hitherto attempted, if Nansen him-
self had not furnished him with the key ; it was JSTansen's
constructive sense that had throughout pointed the way.
But Xansen had no less right on his side when he praised
Colin Archer's talent, and expressed the belief that never
before had a ship been built for Arctic work with any
approach to the care and thought which had been devoted
to this one. Let us hope tliat Colin Archer's most note-

' See Folhehladet, September 15, 1893.

AT HOME AND ABKOAD 313

worthy ' pilot boat,' wliicli is to pilot liumanit}^ through ice-
packed channels and over unknown waters, may stand the
test as well as the other ' Archer-boats,' its predecessors.

The Fram, which in reality somewhat resembles a pilot
boat, is specially designed to play the part allotted it in Han-
sen's general scheme. His idea is not to burst his way by
force through masses of ice, but to let the Fram lie firmly
frozen in and be carried forward by the current. It is not a
fast ship, then, that he needs, but a vessel which can bear an
immense pressure of ice without being crushed. It had to be
so designed that the ice should not be able to grip its sides
and squeeze them together, but should, as it were, wedge itself
under the hull and force it up out of the water. For this
reason the sides and bottom are strongly rounded. In
order to secure the greatest possible strength the ship
had to be as small as possible, and particularly short in
proportion to its breadth. This would facilitate both the
raising of the hull when the ice got packed under it, and the
handling of the vessel among the floes when it should be
released from its ice-berth.

The Frams length on deck is 128 feet; length on water-
line, 113 feet ; keel, 102 feet. Her extreme breadth is 36
feet ; breadth at water-line, exclusive of ice-skin, 34 feet ;
depth, 17 feet. When she is lightly loaded, the draft of
water is 12-| feet. The keel, which is 14 inches by 14 inches,
American elm, projects only 3 inches below the planking,
and its edges are well rounded. The frames are double,
being built chiefly of Italian oak, obtained from the dock-
yards at Horten, where it had been stored for thirty ^^ears.
The lining is pitch-pine. The outside planking consists of
three layers : the inner one being 3 inches oak, the middle
one 4 inches oak, and outside all an ice-skin of greenheart,

314 LIFE OF FlIIDTIOF NANSEN

increasing in thickness from 3 inclies at the keel to 6 inches
at the water-hne. Both bow and stern are protected by a
covering of iron bars. The total thickness of the ship's
«ides is 24 to 28 inches, and their power of resisting pressure
is thus very considerable ; but it is greatly increased by
powerful beams or stays of wood or iron. The hold is
■divided into three water-tight compartments. The structural
strength of the Fram is thus quite exceptional. Never before
has a vessel been so fortified against the attacks of the ice.

During these years of toil Nansen enjoyed breathing
spaces, when he gathered his friends around him. These
pleasant interludes in his work will never be forgotten by
those who took part in them. The}^ remember the dinner
when all the painters — Werenskiold, Eilif Peterssen,
Skredsvig, Munthe, Sinding — gave themselves up to high
jinks without beginning or end, when they would on no
account listen to polite speeches, but rushed into the
kitchen and set the pump going whenever any one began.
Nansen was thoroughly at home among the painters — he
himself dabbled a little in their handicraft,^ and, during his
Bergen days, had worked in the studio of old Schiertz, who
thought he had the makings of an artist in him.

They remember, too, that Midsummer Eve, when
Lammers sang of the hero Eoland, and jSTansen went down
to the bonfire and piled on wood.

B}^ way of exemplifying the hours of relaxation in the
life of labour depicted in this book, one of the authors will

' Nansen draws excellently ; all tlie plates for his zoological, anatomical,
and histological essays are drawn by himself. We may mention, as a charac-
teristic instance of his energy in every department, that he was not content with
himself making the drawings for his works, but also learned lithography, so that,
for example, the plates in his principal essay on the nervous system are drawn
on the stone with his own hand.

AT HOME AND ABROAD 315

note down his recollections of a luncheon party at Nansen's
house, the day after the launch of the Fram.

It had rained overnight, so that the roads were ankle-
deep in autumn mud. JSTansen himself met us at the station
in the highest of spirits.

When we reached his house (a quarter of an hour's walk
from Lysaker station) it was raining. The fiord stretched
iDefore us dark and depressing, the grey autumn sky seemed
to droop disconsolate among the pine stems. But in
iSTansen's stud}^ branches and logs were crackling and
•smouldering cosily upon the open hearth.

Here everything is in old JSTorse style, l^ansen himself,
iis before mentioned, designed the furniture of light pine-
wood, beautifully carved with dragon arabesques. Over
the high seat hangs a tapestry of an antique pattern.

Luncheon was served in the cosy little dining-room, and
merriment was the order of the day. Full justice was done
to one dish after another ; and Nansen is not the man to
forget to season the viands with talk. He was, of course,
still full of memories of the previous day, and one incident
of the launch after another was related and discussed.
Mrs. Nansen had to analyse her sensations at the moment
when she broke the champagne bottle against the bow and
■said : ' Fram skal den liede ! ' Some one else related how
Archer was seen to close his eyes w^hen the ship began to
move ; and so forth.

When the champagne appeared, JSTansen proposed
Eetzius's health, and Eetzius thus ended his speech in
reply : — ■

' This is a delightful home of yours, Nansen, and I
cannot but marvel at your resolution in tearing yourself
away from it to set forth into the polar winter, and brave

316 IJFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

an unknown fate. You, a biologist, liave the sea stretching-
before your very windows, with all its inexhaustible and
fascinating treasures. Here you are in the midst of all your
old friends, the marine fauna — with worms, molluscs, and
mud-eels at your beck and call. We scientists, who so
highly appreciate ISTansen the biologist — the man who has
successfully steered many a voyage of exploration over the
unknown depths of the biological world, and especially
through the intricacies of the nervous system — cannot quite
reconcile ourselves to the thought that you are deserting
this field of labour to go so far and to be absent so long.

' But you have yourself determined it, you have decreed
your own destiny.

' And besides, when the explorer returns from his
adventurous voyage, the biologist will find the field of
investigation as rich as ever. You may make your mind
easy — ^we who are left at home will not reap the whole
harvest — there will be plenty left for you to do. We are as
yet only at the beginning of our work.

' There is only one thing I fear, and that is that Fridtiof
TsTansen, when he comes back from the North Pole, will
discover that the earth has a South Pole as well.'

As we clink glasses and drink Nansen's health, strange
thoughts fill our minds. Who knows when this circle of
friends may meet again? Not, at any rate, until one of
them shall have returned from afar.

Nansen is, as usual, quiet and at his ease. As the later
courses come on, we get him to tell us some of his stories.
He has an unusual gift of oral, no less than of written
narrative ; he describes picturesquely, with powerful
touches, and, on occasion, with charming humour. First
we get him on the poJar bears. Then some one aslis about

AT HOME AND ABROAD
the time when he and Mrs. Nansen chmbed Norefjeld on
New Year's Eve.

NANSEN AND MRS. NANSEN ON SNOW-SHOES

'Yes, it was really New Year's Eve; it was in 1890.
Eva and' I had gone up to Kroderen for a breath of fresh
air, and we made up our minds to climb Norefjeld— to the

318 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

top of course. We slept at Olberg, and were rather lazy in.
the morninsf, so that it was about ten o'clock before we .
made a start. And we didn't hurry at all at first, so that
the day slipped on. It's something of an ascent even in
summer ; but in winter, when the days are short, you have to
look sharp if you want to get to the top while it's light. And
then we had taken a course of our own — well, it may have been
the most direct, but it certainly wasn't the quickest. The snow
was very deep, and we hadn't any guide. At last we couldn't
possibly use our snow-shoes any longer ; it got so steep we
had to take them off and carry them. But we were bound
to do it all the same ; you can't face about and leave a thing
half done, however much ice and frozen snow there may be.
The last piece almost beat us ; I had to cut our way step
by step with my staff. I went ahead, Eva followed. It
reminded me of what the little girl wrote in her school
essay : " For every step we went forward, we went two steps
back. At last we reached the top."

' Well, we too reached the top, but it was dark, and we
had been at it from ten till five with nothing to eat. So
now we set to and picnicked in the snow and the pitchy
darkness, on mysost^ and pemmican mixed.

' You may thank heaven we don't treat you to that to-
day,' said Mrs. Nansen.

' Yes, you made wry faces over it, Eva,' growled her
husband. ' But it's all a matter of habit.'

We liniiered over our walnuts and our wine while
Nansen continued : ' Well, there we two sat alone in the
snow at the top of Norefjeld, something like 5,000 feet
above the level of the sea. The frost-wind nipped our
cheeks, the darkness grew denser and denser. Far away in

^ Goat's milk cheese.

AT HOME AND ABROAD 319'

the west there hngered a very, very feeble gleam of day, the
last in the year. We had to see about getting down again.

' We struck a course more or less in the direction of
Eggedal. From Hogevarde ^ down into the valley is perhaps
about a Norwegian mile," which would have been nothing
at all if it had been light. But it wasn't so easy to find our
way in the darkness.

' Off we plunged into the night, I ahead and Eva follow-
ing. We went like the wind over rocks and slopes, and it
was no joke to keep our balance, I can tell you. When
you've been out in the dark for some time, a sort of dim
shimmer seems to rise from the snow ; you can't call it light,,
but it isn't absolute darkness either. Heaven knows how
we managed to get along sometimes, but manage we did.
All of a sudden I had to stop short, and shout to Eva. It was-
too steep for snow-shoes, there was nothing for it but to sit
down and slide. It's not good for your trousers, but it's
safer in the dark.

' The wind nipped our ears till they tingled, for it was
freezing like anything ; and on we went. Suddenly, as we
were going at full speed, my hat blew off — a little grey hat
of the sort I usually wear.

' So I had to put the brake on, and get to my legs again.
Far up I saw something black upon the snow, scrambled up
to it, seized it, and found it was a stone. The hat must be
further back — yes, there it was. Again I clutched at a
stone. Hats seemed to swarm all over the snow ; but when
I came to put them on they all turned to stones. Stones
for bread may be bad enough, but stones for hats are not a
whit better. There was nothiug for it but to go ahead
hatless.

^ The top of Norefjeld. ^ Seven English milee.

320 LIFE OF FEEDTIOF XAXSEX

'Eva remained where I had left her. " Eva ! " I shouted
" Eva ! " The answer came from far, far below.

'There seemed to be no end to that mile. But we
managed to keep going somehow ; and now and then we
could use our snow-shoes too. All of a sudden the oround
seemed to fall away at our feet ; we stopped at the verge of a
precipitous bank — how high it was we couldn't see, but over
it we had to go, one first, the other after. The snow was deep,
and when that is so, you can clear incredible distances.

' We had long ago lost our bearings, if we had ever had
any. We only knew that we must go ahead. At last we
came to a dead fix. Eva had once more to sit and wait while I
cast about for a way. I went groping around in the darkness
and was a lono- time gone. All of a sudden a thought
struck me : suppose she were to fall asleep ! Such things
have been knov/n to happen, and she must be dead tired.
" Eva, Eva ! " I shouted. " Yes ! " she answered right enough,
but this time from far, far above. If she had fallen asleep I
don't know that I could ever have found her again. As it
was I groped my way up to her, bringing with me the good
news that I had found a watercourse. T won't say that a
watercourse is the best possible snow-shoe course, especially
in pitchy darkness, when your stomach is empty and your
conscience ill at ease — for this was reall}^ a reckless piece of
work. But somehow or other we did contrive to make our
way down the watercourse.

' Xow we were among the birch trees, and at last we
struck upon a road. So the worst was over. Far down,
we came upon a hut. I thought it looked cosy enough,
but Eva said it was dirty and horrid. And now she was
quite lively ; she was determined to push on. Just like a
woman.

AT HOME AND ABROAD 821

' To make a long- story short, we at last reached the
parish clerk's house in Eggedal. It was now late at night,
so we had to knock the people up. The parish clerk was
quite frightened when he heard we had come from the top
of Xorefjeld.

' This time Eva was not so particular about her night's
lodoino-. She had no sooner sat down in a chair than she
fell asleep ; it was twelve at night, and she had been on her
feet for fourteen hours.

'"He's quite worn out, poor boy," said the parish clerk;
for Eva was wearing a grey snow-shoeing dress, ^ith a short
skirt and trousers.

' '• It is my wife," said I.

' You should have heard the exclamations. " Oh Lord,
oh Lord, vou don't mean to say so ! Think of draoo-ino-
your wife with you over the top of Xorefjeld on Xew Year's
Eve ! "

' But now came supper — and as soon as she smelt that
it was not mysost and pemmican, she wakened up.

' It ended in our resting three da3's at the parish clerk's
— and that was our Xew Year's Eve ascent of Xorefjeld.
I thought it great fun ; but I don't know what Eva would
say.

' When we left Eggedal the poor boy and I drove down
Xumedal to Kongsberg, and the boy was almost frozen to
death.

' But one has to go through a little hardship now and
then to enjoy life properly after it. If j'ou don't know
what cold is, neither do you know what it is to be warm.'

The time draws on for the great departure. The
summer of 1893 has come. In the evenings, while his

322 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

secretary is writing at full speed, and Nansen is walking up
and down directing and dictating, lie will suddenly slip out
and appear on the slope in front of the house. Here plant-
ing is going on — gooseberry and currant bushes, apple and
pear trees. ISTansen himself points out to the gardener
where every tree, every bush is to stand. ' It will be
splendid soil,' ssljs the man, as he fills the holes with mould
mixed with seaweed. ' Oh yes, I hope they'll grow,' says
Nansen. The evenino- sun throws lono- shadows from the
great pine stems in front of the house, the waves wash
softly, in a long slow swell, against the beach. The nurse
comes out of the house carrying little Liv, who is to be put
to bed.

How long will be the shadows cast by these bushes and
trees before he comes back ? How many evenings will the
sun disappear behind the ridge, before current and wind
and wave bring his ship home again ? Evening after even-
ing, month after month, year after year !

On Midsummer Day the Fram lies at Pipervik ready to
start. Only a small group of Christiania people have
gathered to stare at the clumsy-looking ship, which still
lies at its berth long after the time appointed for the
start.

So slight is the notice taken of an achievement in the
bud. When he comes back again, all Christiania will turn
out to receive him. But men are always so. As though it
were nothing to conceive this great design, to take this
immense responsibility, to bear all burdens until you are
ready to di-op under them — and to stand erect on the
quarter-deck and take your life in your hands. There were
not many tliat day who remembered the old saying which

AT HOME AND ABROAD 62 o

had been cited at Esekevik when the Fram was launched :
' Magnos homines virtute met'mmr, non fortuna!

Bat amono' those who had ^fathered to see N^ansen off
were many members of the Storthing. By two resolutions,
which must be reckoned to the credit of so small a people,
the Storthing had contributed a sum of about 15,000/, to the
expenses of the expedition. To-day it had adjourned in
order to bid farewell to its leader. But Nansen had not been
informed of this, and had not vet come on board. The

SKETCH BY K. WERENSKIOLD

members of the Storthing waited for hours, and at last could
wait no longer.

Even at the last moment there were details of business
that JSTansen had to attend to. The whole morning passed,
and he had had scarcely a moment to exchange a word with
his wife. The farewell was of the shortest. When he came
downstairs, little Liv was brought to him smiling. He took

the child in his arms : 'Ah yes, you laugh, Liv, but I ! '

He sobbed.

Then he jumped into the httle petroleum launch, steamed
up the fiord, boarded the Fram, taking no notice of any one,

324 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

went up to the bridge, and gave orders for tlie start. Those
Mdio saw his face at tliat moment will never forget it.

One picture from his stor}^ of that Xew Year's Eve ex-
pedition has often risen before our minds during these 3^ears
•of waiting. She sits alone upon the mountain, and gazes
forth into the impenetrable darkness, so long, so long. Then
a voice is heard from far off on the snow-field. He is there !
He is cominsc !

325

CHAPTER XVIII

BARON VON TOLL AND THE NANSEN EXPEDITION

At the end of the. year 1892, Baron Edward von Toll was
ready to start upon his second journey to the New Siberia
Islands and the coast of the Arctic Sea between Sviiitoi Nos
and Khatanga Bay, at the expense of the Eussian Academy
of Science.

His previous journey had taken place in the years 1885-
86, and he had brought back with him a comprehensive
knowledge of the whole region, and of the means of commu-
nication there available. On these points he was undoubtedly
the first living authority.

In December, 1892, Nansen applied to him to know
whether he could send from Siberia to Norway a number of
good Siberian sledge-dogs, or whether it would be possible
to pick up such dogs at the mouth of the Lena or at the New
Siberia Islands, if the Frain were to call there. Baron von
Toll, after discussing the matter with several officials and
men of science, came to the conclusion that it would be best
to have the dogs sent to Khabarova, on Yugor Strait, a point
at which the Fram must in any event touch. It would not
be advisable to place the depot of dogs further east ; for the
Fram might be blocked by the ice in the Kara Sea, and thus
unable to reach the point where the dogs, so necessary to the
success of the expedition, awaited her. Immediately before

326 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NAN SEN

starting, Baron von Toll wrote to Xansen to this effect, pro-
mising at the same time to esta.blish a second depot of dogs
at the mouth of the Olenek in East Siberia ; for the East
Siberian dogs were unquestionably superior to those of West
Siberia.

Among; those whom Baron von Toll had consulted on this
matter was Privy Councillor W. Troinizki, who had formerly
been Governor of Tobolsk, but was for the moment resident
in St. Petersburg. He informed Von Toll that sledge dogs
were still in use among the Ostiaks, and recommended him,
as he passed through Tinmen, to apply to an English trader,
named Edward Wardroper, who would give him all possible
help in this matter.

The advice proved excellent. Wardroper was able at
once to lay his hand upon the right man both for buying
the Ostiak dogs and conveying them to Khabaro a— ^namely,
Alexander Ivanovitcli Trontheim, who was then engaged
in fishing operations on the Sosva. Before Baron von Toll
had left Tinmen a contract had been concluded with Tront-
heim, through Wardroper's intermediation.

Trontheim proved to be the very man for this difficult
piece of work. Born in Eiga, of German parents, he had
since 1876 been settled in Siberia, where in 1878-79 he had
accompanied the Danish traveller, H. von Teichner, on his
journey down the Obi. Shortly after, he entered the service
of that well-known patron of polar exploration, A. M.
Sibiriakoff, and made a voyage with him in the steamship
Obi, first to Yugor Strait and then to Norway. In 1888 he
shipped on board the Labrador, which, under command of
Captain Wiggins, had just reached the mouth of the Yenisei.
When the Labrador arrived at Yugor Strait, Trontheim left
the ship to accompany young Mr. Morier on his journey

BARON VON TOLL AND THE NAN SEN EXPEDITION 627

from tlie Polar Sea, right through the tundra district, and
over the northern spur of the Ural Mountains to BerezofF,

On January 10, 1893, Trontheim was at BerezofF, where
great numbers of Ostiaks and Samoyedes had gathered for
a taxation meetino-. After careful trials, he selected and
bought thirty-three dogs, which he conveyed to the village
of Muski on the Lower Obi, his point of departure for the
journey over the Ural Mountains to Yugor Strait.

Of this journey an account is given in a pamphlet written
by A. KrylofF on the basis of Trontheim's oral narrative, and
published in Tobolsk under the title of To Meet Nansen.
Baron von Toll, in his report to the Secretary of State, Von
Eeuterskiold, makes copious extracts from this pamphlet.

After having hired a herd of 450 reindeer, thirty of
which were to be killed for rations on the way, Trontheim
left Muski on April 4. The caravan, with four dogs
attached to each sledge, followed the course of the river
Woikara up to its sonrce in the Ural Mountains, crossed
them by way of the Choila Pass, and then followed the river
Lemva until it joined the Usva. Here they arrived on
April 22. The slipperiness of the snow, which made it
almost impracticable for reindeer, and the exhausted condi-
tion of the animals, forced them to remain in camp until
May 7.

On the night of the 7 th, Trontheim got under way again,
and next day reached the river Warkuta. Its banks are
tolerably well wooded ; but from this point northwards the
trees rapidly dwindled in height. On May 16 the caravan
entered upon the treeless tundra country, where they
could find only dwarf bushes to burn ; and about the
Karataikha, where the country became extremely swampy,
even this fuel failed them.

328 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

On June 2 they reached Baldino Lake, in which the Sylva,
a tributary of the Kara, takes its rise. On June 22
they came in sight of the open sea. The next day they
saw the little church and camp of Khabarova, and that
evening reached the town.

To his great relief Trontheim learned that no steamer or
other vessel of any kind had as yet appeared. During the
following days the north wind drove masses of ice towards
the coast, packing Yugor Strait and the sea beyond it, as far
as the eye could reach. Not until July 10 was the sea once
more free from ice, and Trontlieim now looked anxiously
every day for Nansen's arrival. ,

The Fram meanwhile had left Yardo on July 21 (new
style), and headed for the southern point of JSTova Zembla,
in order to escape the ice at the entrance to Yugor Strait.
At midnight they got into a thick fog, which forced the Fram
to cast anchor and to lie there for two days, which Nansen
occupied in zoological observations and investigations. Early
in the morning of July 25, the fog lightened a little, and the
first ice was visible on the horizon, slowly drifting towards
them ; but it soon disappeared again. They had scarcely
made tM enty miles when they were again enveloped in a thick
fog and compelled to cast anchor. It cleared in a few hours,
and then the}^ got into a belt of drift ice, ' It was a great
pleasure,' says Nansen's secretary, O. Christophersen, who
accompanied the Fram as far as Yugor Strait, ' to be on
board the ship and see how admirably it is adapted for
meeting the difficulties of polar navigation. It is impossible
to describe how easy and unnnpeded is the progress of the
Fram through waves full of crashing ice floes. Even if the
fairway seemed absolutely 1)locked l)y the closely packed
floes, the Frtim was not hindered a moment in its course. It

BARON VOX TOLL AND THE NANSEN EXPEDITION 329

steamed qaietl_y ahead, clearing its path with its mighty steel
prow, and hurling aside ice floes weighing a hundred tons
and more, without any noticeable shock. For aught we
could tell when not actually on deck, we might have been in
open water with a very slight sea on.'

At Khabarova, in the meantime, da}^ after day passed,
and Trontheim wondered if Nansen were ever coming. At
last, on July 18 (old style), he saw smoke on the horizon,
and presently a steamship appeared — there could be no doubt
as to its being the Fram. Trontheim got hold of a little
Samoyede boat, and went out to meet the steamer. When
he hailed her and gave his name, he was at once taken on
board. A tall and very determined-looking man in a greasy
working jacket came to meet him. Trontheim at first took
him for one of the engineers or sailors ; but presently he saw
that it must be Nansen himself. Nansen greeted him in the
friendliest way, and asked how he had prospered on his long
and difficult journey. Then the two at once went ashore to
inspect the dogs.

JSTansen's personality made an exceedingly deep impres-
sion upon Trontheim. He thus describes him : ' Nansen is
a tall young man. His every motion, his ever}^ word,
expresses energy, resolution, and strength of will. Tn his
intercourse with his subordinates — -all of them picked men —
he is pleasant and genial. All the heavy work on board is
equally apportioned among the ship's company, and there is
no distinction between the sailors, the captain, and the chief
himself, who everywhere and in everything sets a good
example. Even the doctor takes his part in the ordinary
work of the ship. . . . And this community of labour, this
absence of all class distinction,' says Trontheim, ' is the bond
which holds the whole expedition together, and justifies the

odO LIFE OF FRIDTCOF NANSEN

hope that in hoars of difficuhy and danger it will succeed in
defying fate.'

The Fram remained at Khabarova several days, awaiting
the arrival of the schooner Urania, which was to bring up a
cargo of coal. Nansen employed this time partly in examining
into the state of the ice out at sea, partly in shooting
and making geological studies along the coast. Trontheim
was a daily guest on board. When Nansen came to know
him better, he wanted to enlist him as a sailor, and offered
him seventy roubles a month for three years. But Trontheim
was not inclined to undertake the adventure.

July 22 (old style) was the last day of the Franis stay
at Khabarova. Coals had to be shifted from the coal-bunks
into the stoke-hole — a task in which all took part, with
Nansen at their head, everything going with the greatest
good humour and merriment. Then they went ashore to
make a trial of Trontheim's dogs, and found that it took eight
of them to draw a sledge with three men upon it. jSTansen
was satisfied with the trial, and the dogs were taken on board.
When Trontheim asked for a certificate that he had consci-
entiously carried out his contract, Nansen exclaimed : ' A
certificate is not enough ! You have performed your task
admirably, and done the expedition a very great service. I
am empowered to present you, in the name of His Majesty
the King, with a gold medal in recognition of the valuable
assistance you have rendered us.' Thereupon Nansen
handed Trontheim the ' King Oscar II.' medal, and with it
a strongly worded certificate, written in German.

As there was no sign of the Urania, Nansen concluded
that she must have been stopped by the ice, and determined
to weigh anchor.

Trontheim and Xansen's secretary, 0. Christophersen,

BARON VON TOLL AND THE NANSEN EXPEDITION o31

now went ashore, and as tliey would probably have to wait
some time for the Urania, which was to take them to Vardo,
Nansen left with them an ample stock of provisions. Chris-
tophersen was entrusted with seventy-nine telegrams to all
parts of the world, which were to be despatched on his
arrival at Vardo.

Hitherto the weather had been calm ; but on this even-
ing a change set in. The wind rose, and presently it was
blowing half a gale. Precisely at midnight, the departure-
signal sounded from the Fram, and she steamed up the
Strait and out to sea. Nansen himself preceded her in the
steam-launch, to make sure of the fairway, and pilot her
along.

Baron Yon Toll, however, was not content with what
he had already done for the expedition, but, in the course of
his further journey through East Siberia, continued to take
all possible measures for its assistance in case of disaster,
not only by establishing a depot of dogs at the mouth of the
Olenek, but also by placing supplies of provisions on the
New Siberia Islands.

In passing through Irkutsk, Von Toll consulted with
A. M. Sibiriakoff, and made the acquaintance of his partner
Nikolai Kelch. The Baron explained to him how impor-
tant it would be for the crew of the Fram, if their ship
should meet with the fate of the Jeamiette, to find depots of
provisions on the New Siberia Islands. Kelch was fired by
the idea of offering the gallant Norwegian and his comrades
true Siberian hospitality. As Von Toll intended to visit
regions the natives of which go every summer to the
southern islands of the group, he thought he would easily
find seal-hunters who would undertake the establishment

662 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSE:^

of the depots ; and Kelcli at once placed 1,500 roubles
at his disposal for the carrying out of this plan, and the
purchase of dogs to be left at the mouth of the Olenek.

The provisions were bought at Yakutsk, and sent with
all speed to the coast, at the mouth of the Yana.

But when Von Toll arrived here it proved more diffi-
cult than he had expected to find trustworthy agents for
establishing the three depots he had determined to provide
for the expedition. A Eussian seal-hunter, Michael Sanni-
kofi", who had formerly spent several summers upon Liakhofi
Island, at first undertook the care of two of the depots.
But finding that his dogs were not in sufficiently good
condition, and that he could not at the moment procure
sufficient food for them, he withdrew his promise, and would
onl}^ undertake to see to Yon Toll's third depot, on Little
LiakhofF Island.

During his voyage down the Lena, Von Toll had already
determined to extend his journey to Kotelnoi, the northern-
most of the islands, and therefore himself undertook to
establish the other two depots. To this end Jacob Sannikoff,
a merchant, who took a lively interest in Nansen's fortunes,
placed at Von Toll's disposal three dog sledges — that is to
say, three sledges with a team of twelve dogs apiece — and
as much dogs' food as could readily be procured.

Von Toll had arranged as follows the disposal of the
depots : One was to be at Stan Durnova on the west coast
of Kotelnoi, at 75° 37^ IST. lat. ; one about seventy miles
further south, at 74° 55'' X. lat., on the river Urassalach,
and the third on the south coast of Little Liakhofi' Island.

If the crew should desert the ship and land on the
northernmost of the New Siberia Islands, it would find in the
first depot rations for twelve men for eight days. This would

EARON VON TOLL AN1> THE NANSEN EXPEDITION ooo

enable tliem to make their way along the coast to the depot
on the Urassalach. Here they would find, in a house which
Baron. von Toll had built in 1886, provisions sufficient for
one month. At the third station, in a little house at the
southern point of Little LiakhofF Island, they would find pro-
visions for two months, which would enable them to reach
the mainland.

VON TOLL S EXPEDITION TO THE NEW SIBERIA ISLANDS
From an Instantaneous Photograph

In a letter to Baroness von Toll, dated Aidschergaidach,
on the Arctic Ocean, June 6/18, 1893, which has been
most kindly communicated to us, Baron von Toll has given
a lively description of his journey, which proved far more
adventurous than Trontheim's expedition from Muski to
Khabarova.

334 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF XANSEX

By a pious fraud, Yon Toll had left his wife in ignorance
of his destination. ' We have great reason to thank God,'
he writes, after his safe return ; ' for a God there is, who helps
every one who honestly strives towards a good end ; and you
will find in what follows many clear proofs of His power.'

Thus the letter continAes : ' On April 16, when I
sent off my last letters from here, I was ready for a start,
and those " mammoth- districts " which I said in my telegram,
that I was going to explore were the New Siberia Islands.
This prevarication was designed to save you anxiety. I
could not do otherwise, and I know you will forgive me.
In the first place I had to fulfil a formal promise ; for when
Sannikofi" " funked the job," there Avas no one but I to
undertake it. Xeither Djergili nor Ovandje would have
gone to Kotelnoi without me ; and even if they had they
would never have placed the depots with the necessary care.
And what would have been the result if Xansen, after losing
his ship, had taken refuge at Kotelnoi, and found nothing
there ? '

All that Yon Toll could get out of the people at Yakutsk
was thirty-six dogs, three sledges, and a considerable part of
the dogs' food required for the journey, which was estimated
to take thirty-six days. Some more of the requisite dogs'
food he would find on Great Liakhoff Island, where it had
been left by Sannikoff 's searchers for mammoth tusks ;
and Sannikofi' would bring a further supply to Little
Liakhofi" Island, when he went there to estabhsh the
third Xansen depot. The dogs were in anything but good
condition ; of the sledges one was warped and crooked
before they started, another was patched along the bottom,
while the third, though good, was very heavy.

The expedition consisted of Baron von Toll, his com-

BAROX VOX TOLL AXD THE NAXSEX EXPEDITIOX 335

paDion Scliileiko, a Cossack named Eastorgujew, two
Lamuts, Djergili and Ovandje, who had accompanied Yon
Toll on his journey of 1885, and a Yakut named Uiban.
The last mentioned, who was a lumberman and a capital
dog-driver and guide, unfortunately fell ill before the start,
and had to be left behind. In his stead they took a Tungus
named Maxim. As to the natives of his party Baron von
Toll writes :

' My friends the Tunguses care for nothing but reindeer,
and do not understand how to treat dogs and still less how
to drive them. We three, Schileiko, Eastorgujew, and I, had
therefore to help our drivers to train and manage the dogs.
Djergili drove my sledge, Maxim drove Schileiko's, and
Ovandje Eastorgujew's. It was quite amusing to see that
not one of my drivers knew which of the dogs should be the
leaders. On the first days of the journey, Djergili tried all
twelve one after another, until at last he fixed upon a jDair,
consisting of his own hunting-dog, which he had brought
with us out of affection for it, and a little lean white sledge-
dog with black spots. These leaders from first to last dis-
tinguished themselves with the most admirable consistency
by totally disregarding the cries of " Xano, nano " (to the
left), and " Tock, tock " (to the right), and further by their
uncontrollable mania for always going straight for the worst
torosses instead of avoiding them. Before starting from
Aidschergaidach, Djergili cut himself a huge driving-staff,
which he kept carefully lashed to the sledge and never once
used, as it was far too big and heaAy for him. When we
wanted to stop the sledge, he would helplessly call " Toi, toi,"
and at sharp turns all we could do was to commend ourselves
to the care of a benevolent Providence. As a matter of fact,
we only once capsized, and then Djergili fell under the

336 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

sledge. But by good luck it was not then loaded, as it had
been, with twenty j^ud, but only with two pud; for this
happened on the way back from Stan Durnova upon
Kotelnoi. Djergili was always very proud of his hunting-
dog, which could snap up lemmings while running, with the
result that it overfed itself and grew too fat to work.
Ovandje, in spite of his unaffected hatred for every animal
that does not wear reindeer's horns, developed a real talent
as a sledofe-driver. He beat his dog:s with the sledo^e-staff
and with a whip, which is not generally used, so that his
sledge always took the lead. Djergili, on the contrary, was
too kind-hearted ever to beat the dogs on the whole course
of the journey ; so that naturally my sledge was always last.
Maxim's method with his dogs was conversational. He
told them long stories in one uninterrupted flow, always
consistino' of the same words : " Chara bar, ol tuo-ui, chara
bar, ol tugui," &c., that is to say, " There is something there,
there is something black ; " and in this disingenuous way
he tried to egg them on by suggesting to them the idea of
imaginary game. Schileiko nicknamed him Chara (the
black) ; they got on well together, and his half-weeping,
half-laughing countenance afforded Schileiko a perpetual
fund of amusement.'

The expedition started on April 20 (old style) from
Tschai-Powarnya (the Tea Hut) at the foot of Sviiitoi-Nos,
and, the weather being fine and clear, covered in thirteen
hours the seventy versts to Maloje-Simovje on Liakhoff
Island, after which it continued its way in alternate snow-
and rain-storms to Michael Sannikoff's hut, Miclia Stan, on
the south-west point of Little Liakhoff Island, which they
reached on the evening of April 24. On the morning of the
28th they arrived safe and sound at Bear Gape, the southern

BARON VON TOLL AND THE NAN SEN EXPEDITION 337

point of Kotelnoi, and proceeded, without giving their dogs
much rest, to their first main destination, Urassalach, where
the hut which Von Toll had built in 1886 w^as to serve as a
storehouse for Hansen's provisions. ' I had hoped to spend
some days in my house,' Yon Toll writes to his wife, ' and
get m.j depot arranged at once. But this was no easy
matter. All the three rooms in the hut were filled to the
very roof with snow. The innermost room, which in. 1886
I had used as a bath-room, appeared to me best fitted for
storing the provisions. In the first place, then, we had to
dig and sweep the snow out of the house before we could
even begin to make our deposit. Schileiko and I set a good
example, and by the second day we had at least cleared a
passage through to the bath-room. The Cossack took the
lead in the work. Djergili lifted two shovelfuls of snow (the
Tungus shovels are no bigger than a child's spade), and said
with the utmost simplicity, " How can I do more ? " Ovandje
and Maxim were not much better. Here, of course, we felt
keenly the want of a good workman ; but I succeeded, partly
by exhortation and example, and partly by the expenditure
of half our store of brandy (we had only one bottle with us)
in so far encouraging my men that they began to think the
work might possibly be carried through. On the night of
May 3 I was ready to proceed. Ovandje was, at his own
request, left behind to improve the condition of the bath-
room, which was now free from ice and snow, and to store
the provisions carefull}'', while Maxim was to accompany us
to Stan Durnova, there to lend a hand in the establishment
of the dep6t, and then to return at once with the sledge, and
help Ovandje with the final closing up of the store of provi-
sions at Urassalach.'

On May 5 the expedition reached Stan Durnova, where,

00(

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

in a pit some fifteen inches deep, they buried a case con-
taining ' twelve pounds of chocolate, six boxes of preserved
pea soup, three blocks of tea, ten pounds of butter, preserved
in a zinc box, six pounds of sugar, one pound of salt, three
packets of matches in a zinc box, one pound of dried
vegetables, two pounds of shot, one pound of powder, 280

AT URASSALACH

percussion caps. The pit was carefully filled in to prevent
the polar bears from getting at it. On the top of the case
we laid a thoroughly frozen board, and covered it with
snow over which we poured water, thus converting it into
ice ; above that, again, we placed beams and clay ; then
snow and water and clay; and, finally, on the top of all, a
little block-house. In the cliest we left a written greeting :

BAEON VON TOLL AND THE NANSEN EXPEDITION 339

"^ Fram^ with God." But in the pit we had planted and
battened firmly into the ground a tall pole, which could
be seen from a great distance ; and to it we fastened a
plate with the inscription " Hansen's depot, No. 1, Stan
Durnova." Against the pole we placed a pickaxe and a
spade.'

Yon Toll had intended to remain some time here to
make scientific observations. But the dogs' food was
running low, and on May 7 he had to set out on his return.
At the mouth of the river Tschukotskaia they called a halt ;
and a snowstorm, which came upon them here, kept them
prisoners from May 8 till the 11th, so that the dogs had
to be put on half rations. On May 12 they resumed
their march ; the snow was so soft and slushy that they
could not possibly drive, but had to go on foot. Schileiko
went out shooting, and killed a polar bear, whose flesh
made up to the dogs for the privations they had had to
endure.

Thus they returned to Urassalach. ' Ovandje had been
eight days alone instead of three, for the snowstorm had
prevented Maxim from reaching him au}^ earlier than we
did. The unwonted loneliness, in addition to a not quite
unfounded fear of the polar bears, had produced a terrible
effect upon old Ovandje. He was quite unrecognisable and
looked as if he had risen from his coflan. Like the un-
thinking barbarian he is, he was furious with me for having
let him remain there, although he himself had begged to do
so, thinking the work in the house at Urassalach would be
easier than the toil of travelling. However, he gradually
recovered, and Djergili's influence soon brought him to
reason. He several times begged my pardon for having
been so foolish as to blame me for the trying time he had

z 2

340 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

gone through, and to accuse me of having been mdifferent
to his fate.

' Schileiko had paid dear for his success as a sportsman ;
his eyes, which had given him trouble even at Stan Durnova,
v^^ere quite closed the day after our arrival at Urassalach ; he
was unable to open them, and suffered terrible pain. It was
very hard for me to see m}^ comrade suffering the agonies of
snow-blindness, the more so as I knew that it was due to a
mistake of my own. I had taken from my medicine-chest
at Aidschergaidach small portions of all the most important
drugs for use on our journey, and among the rest drops of
jitropin. But I put too much of this tincture in a small
phial, so that it burst when the liquid froze, and I had to
throw it away. The only drug I had that was of any use in
this case was sublimate ; but I had forgotten the requisite
proportions for a solution. A friend of mine, an oculist in
St. Petersburg, had told me the right quantity in 1884,
but I had had no occasion to use the drag during the interval,
as neither I nor my comrades had suffered at all from snow-
blindness. Schileiko had brought it on mainly by his
astronomical work, taking the altitude of the sun ; but the
exertion of hunting the polar bear, and the tramp on foot
over the loose snow, without snow- spectacles, from the
place where he killed it to Urassalach, had made him
much worse.

' I could not stand by and see Schileiko suffering without
doing what I could to cure him. I determined, at all
hazards, to tr}^ the sublimate, and fancied I could remember
the right strength required ; but I miscalculated the attenua-
tion, and dropped three-quarters per hundred instead of
three in a thousand. The result was that I went through
twenty-four hours of extreme anxiety, in which I feared he

BARON YON TOLL AND THE NANSEN EXPEDITION 341

might lose his eye (I had appHed the solution to the right
eye alone). AVhen these terrible hours had passed, an im-
provement set in. Thank God, Schileiko could now open
his eyes — the pain had considerably diminished, and
furthermore, the right eye was much better than the left !

' Schileiko's improvement was the signal for our depar-
ture. There was no longer any doubt that we had to reckon
with an unusually early summer. So early as May 8, we
noted the arrival from the south of the first birds of passage,
the great silver gulls. I consoled my old men, who were
shaking their heads over our situation, with the proverb,
" One swallow does not make a summer." On May 12, at
Urassalach, the first pair of geese greeted us. On the 15th
we saw a flock of Sommateria spectabilis flying from the
north. At last, on the 16th, at Bear Cape, my favourite
bird, the Tringa islandica, greeted me with its melancholy
timrle, tuurle, tuurle — kogiji. Our case was, after all, not so
desperate. There was no danger, but only the prospect of
a laborious journey back. What I feared most was the loss
of time, thinking that my expedition to the Anabar might
be interfered with.

' On the 14th, then, we made a start from Urassalach
(Nansen's depot No. 2), the same friendly and harmonious
feeling prevailing among us as at our arrival. I took leave,
probably for ever, of my old house, in which I had lived
for almost three months in 1886, and in which I had now
again passed several days. We spent Whitsuntide at Bear
Cape, and did some good work. On the evening of May 17,
we bade our final farewell to Kotelnoi. When we took our
last view of the island, it was bathed in clear and beautiful
light, and presented a picturesque aspect which is deeply
imprinted on my memory. On May 18 we camped on the

342 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

ice about forty-five versts from the island, having covered
that distance on foot in ten hours. In the meantime the torosses
had steahhily emerged from under their covering of snow.
The surface, which had formerly been quite firm, was now a
mass of slush, in which we sometimes sank up to our waists.
It rained on the following da}^ and in consequence the water
between the torosses increased greatly.

' From my diary : May 19, 6.30 a.m. On the ice between
Kotelnoi and Little Liakhoff* Island, uncertain where. A
critical position ; wet to the skin, lost in the fog ; among
torosses which exhaust our dogs ; no wood for burn-
ing, the thermometer at zero, chilled to the bone. We have
covered perhaps fifteen versts in the eight hours since our
start. First we went east to south-east. Then we came
upon the track of reindeer, which we followed up. Kow
began the torosses, with wet snow between them, more
water than snow, up to our waists. The dogs will not pull
unless there is some one beside them dragging or pushing
the sledge. After we had gone about seven versts from our
camp, we saw a bank of mist, which showed that there must
be land in that direction. Ovandje and I agreed that it
must be Little Liakhofi* Island. Soon the bank of mist dis-
appeared, and we were without any landmark and wet to the
skin. At eighteen versts we held a consultation. We
pitched the canvas tent. Djergili had thrown away the
wood for burning which we had brought with us, thinking
that the island was only twenty versts away. Of this I knew
nothing, having gone on ahead. He and Ovandje are par-
ticularly downcast, because they feel that they have done
wrong. I tried to encourage them with, (1) a distribution
of chocolate on the march, (2) a cup of warm cocoa in the

BARON VON TOLL AND TPIE NANSEN EXPEDITION 343

tent, (3) as a last resource, tlie announeement that there
would be brandy at Micha Stan, wliich Sannikoff would in
the meantime have brought there. Hereupon Ovandje said
to me : " Very well, sir, but if we get there and find no
brandy, we shall die. And if you give us any, you must
give us our fill ! "

' The snow is melting on all sides, and we see nothing
but water, with no prospect of getting anything dried at our
poor little glimmer of a fire. Schileiko and I are in good
enough spirits, the others are very downcast. As I write, I
hear a shout of joy from Djergili — he sees land, the fog
has lifted, and the north coast of Little Liakhoft* Island is only
ten versts distant ! We will give the dogs a little more food,
and then make a start again. On the way a flock of Harelda
glacialis flew close over our heads, coming from the east-
ward.'

It was an exhausting day. ' At starting from our yes-
terday's resting-place,' says the diary for the 1 9th, ' I was so
chilled, and the others no less so, that nothing but my word
of command " The band to the front," could keep up our
sinking spirits. This means that I headed the column, sing-
ing loudly and imitating drums, flutes, &c., and keeping up
a quick march time with m}^ feet.'

On the 2 1 St they arrived at Micha Stan. Here Michael
Sannikoff had established the third Nansen depot, and here
they stopped a while to recruit.

' On May 23 we started from Little Liakhofl Island, and
arrived on the 25th at Maloje Simovje, where we found
summer at its height : the river was a torrent of melted
snow, and along the shore there was a broad belt of water
above the ice. I wanted to be on the mainland again by the

344 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEx\

27tli, SO as to celebrate your birthday with a recovered good
conscience— and I managed it.

' In the clear glow of the midnight sun, and in a light
frost, we set out on May 25 for our last stage upon the ice.
We had first to get through the shore water, and then across
tolerably good ice, till we reached the first belt of torosses.
There the old toiling through the slush began again. When
we started, the mountains of Sviatoi JSTos to the south, which
were our landmark and goal, were gleaming in a golden
radiance. Now they stood out in sharp contours against a
dark background. We could now see that only the upper
part of the mountains was covered with snow, while the
lower slopes were already bare and wore a dark-blue tinge.
But it was the dark background of sky that made both the
old men shake their heads ominously. Out of it there
emerged a heavy cloud, like a thunder cloud, which drew up
from the south-west against the wind.

' At five o'clock in the morning Sviatoi ISTos darkened,
for the cloud had reached it ; at 5.30 it was entirely wrapt
in clouds. By six o'clock the whole sky was black, and in a
few minutes the storm came tearing down upon us : first
hail, and then floods of rain. The frost had ceased a little
before, and between the torosses our half-naked feet in our
ragged shoes sank deep in water at every step. The first
downpour of rain thoroughly drenched us once more. I had
managed to cover the sledges with the tent in time to pro-
tect our instruments, although our bedding remained exposed.
The dogs flatly declined to do any work, and there was
nothing for it but to call a halt, although we had done only
thirty versts. The men's spirits recovered a little when we
had got into the tent and taken a dram of brandy all round.
Indeed, we were not greatly depressed, in spite of the water

BAEON VON TOLL AND THE NANSEN EXPEDITION 345

below, above, and around us ; for this was probably to be our
last encampment on the ice, and our second last stage with
the dogs. The next day, the 26th, we devoted to sleep and
rest. At midnight on the 26th we started; the weather was
fair again, the mist had lifted, the mountains on the main-
land stood out clearly before us, and we had now only to
cover forty versts in order to reach them.

' After an uninterrupted march of 8^ hours, partly over
smooth ice covered with water, partly over horrible torosses,
and at last in knee-deep water of a frightfully low tempera-
ture, we reached the mainland on your birthday, and cele-
brated both it and the happy conclusion of our journey at
Tschai Powarnya.

' At the foot of the most eastern of the Sviiitoi Nos
mountains, Chaptagaitar, we found a great commotion afoot.
SannikofF had sent fifteen reindeer to meet us, under the
charge of Uiban, who had in the meantime recovered ; and
three companies of mammoth-ivory seekers had pitched
their tents here, and were awaiting a favourable moment
for starting with their reindeer for Great Liakhoff Island.
They had lashed their baggage high upon their sledges,
so as to be able to sit on the top of it and escape the wet.
Most of them turned back when they saw how deep the
water was above the ice, and only eight men stuck to their
purpose. On the day of our arrival, two of these men
attempted the crossing which we had just made in the other
direction, but were forced to turn back. Not until June 1,
did they succeed in reaching the island, a sharp frost
and snowstorm on May 31 having restored the wintry
aspect of things. We, too, took advantage of the moment,
and drove our reindeer-sledges in great style along the
coast to the western extremity of Sviiitoi Nos. We no

346 LIFE OF FRTDTIOF NANSEN

longer needed to steer or drag the sledges, or to encourage
the dogs with incessant romances, according to Maxim's
ingenious system. What had become of the dogs, the
brave animals who, with very little rest and on scanty
fare, had dragged us, or at any rate our baggage, for fully
thirty-eight days, and had well deserved a handsome reward
for their service ? At Tschai-Powarnya all but a few of
them found their grave ! We had not enough food for
them, and to let them run loose on the tundra would have
been dangerous, for they have still wolfs blood in their
veins, and would soon have been chasing the tame and wild
reindeer, and dangerously reinforcing the plague of wolves.
So there was nothing for it but to have them killed — it was
a horrible act of ingratitude. Only a few were spared.
Djergili of course begged for the life of his " atejkan," a horri-
ble animal, in my opinion, which had done little or no work,
but regarded the whole journey as a hunting expedition for
its enjoyment. I saved the life, too, of a fine old Arctic dog
which had twice done me good service : but in crossing
one of the many swollen torrents on our way the poor
beast was drowned.'

Later in the year, twenty-six East Siberian dogs, bought
by Baron von Toll's directions, at the expense of Kelch, were
brought by Johan Torgersen, a Norwegian, to the mouth of
the Olenek. Here he awaited the Fram from the beginning of
August till September 25, but the ship never arrived. All
Baron von Toll's observations tend to the conclusion that in
tlie summer of 1898 the Polar Sea must have been unusually
free from ice, and it is therefore probable that after passing-
Cape Cheliuskin Nansen headed straight north, or perhaps
kept N.N.E. from the Kara Sea, in the direction of Ensomhed
Island (Lonely Island).

BARON VON TOLL AND THE NANSEN EXPEDITION 347

Fridtiof Nansen's countrymen cannot but read with the
liveliest interest Baron von Toll's graphic description of
the fatigues and dangers of his expedition to the New
Siberia Islands. The remarkable devotion and self-sacrifice
displayed by a foreigner in behalf of our countryman
affords a striking proof of the sympathy with which foreign
nations follow his enterprise.

348 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTER XIX

NEW SIBERIA AND THE NORTH POLE
By Baron Edward Von Toll

' Tangara [God, the ruler of the world] is far too great to
trouble hmiself about everything. How could a great Lord
ever get on without an agent ? '

Thus did my old friend Djergili take up tlie thread of a
conversation one evening by the tent fire, on the return
journey from the New Siberia Islands in November 1886.
Outside, the storm swept and swirled over the tundra, so
that the snow-dust filtered through every seam and cranny in
the tent, all over our clothes and bedding.

With a hasty movement of his lithe little bod}^, Djergili
put down his tea-cup, after having for the tenth time drained
it rapturously to the last drop, and held out to me a piece
of drift wood, with which he was preparing to stir the
smouldering fire.

'■Toion-mo' [my Lord], he continued, 'who is it that
provides the drift wood ? And who sends the reindeer in
summer over to the islands ? Who has scattered the bii?
bones [mammoth tusks] over the islands ? You don't think
it's Tangara himself ? No, it's the island's own itscldtd [spirit]
that has done all that ; and beyond the sea, on the mainland,
it is the itschitd of the mainland that looks after things in the
same way. How can you think it possible that Tangara
should not have his agents, every one of whom knows quite

NEW SIBERIA AND THE NORTH POLE 349

well what he has to do ? And these agents are precisely the
itschitds. But underlings are all alike — when they have
anything to do, they want something for doing it. So when
we have had a good day's hunting or earned a good day's
wage we give our itschitd the custoniar}^ fee. And it's just
the same with the saints : we burn candles before them
that they may secure us a good place in heaven.'

Djergili took out his snufF-box, refreshed himself with a
pinch, and gazed thoughtfully before him for some time.
' Toion-mo,' he suddenly turned to me, coming back to his
favourite subject, ' I wonder whether there's plenty of drift
wood, and reindeer, and mammoth tusks on SannikofF Island ^
as well ? '

I told him I had ever}^ reason to believe that there
must be drift wood on the west coast of Sannikoff Land,
and that there were possibly reindeer and mammoth tusks
there too. Djergili's face wore an expression partly of
intense longing, partly of inward rapture, at the thought of
hunting reindeer and gathering mammoth tusks upon an
island where no one had ever hunted or gathered ivory
before.

But soon this expression vanished and gave place to one
of deep cogitation. The result he summed up as follows :
' The drift wood must come there from the Lena, that's clear
enough. Then if these Americans have found reindeer-
horns on the second SannikofF Land [Bennett Island] why
should not there be reindeer on this SannikofF Land as
well ? And as to mammoth tusks, why it's only natural,'
he added, ' that there should be plenty of them, for potop
[the Deluge] must have been there too.'

^ Sannikoff Land, north of the New Siberia Islands, has only been seen from
them in the distance, and has never been visited.

350 LIFE OF FKIDTIOF NANSEN

' What do you mean by that ? ' I asked, anxious for a
further explanation.

' It's easy enough to understand, toion. When Noah
built the ark, he intended to drive all the animals into it ; but
he had built it very badly, and had not made room enough
in it for the mammoth. So the poor animals swam after
the ark as far as their strength would carry them ; but at
last they were all drowned, and that's why the bodies of the
mammoths now lie upon the stone ice, along with the heaps
of drift wood that jjotop also left behind it. And as the
flood covered the New Siberia Islands, of course it must
have covered Sannikoff Land as well.'

In order to vindicate my friend Djergili's originality, I
must here remark that he has never heard of Howorth's book.
The Mammoth and the Flood. Djergili's view of these ques-
tions, like his whole philosophical conception of the world, is
an independent mixture of Biblical and other legends, with
old heathen ideas, and observations of his own. Djergili,
moreover, could support his view by evidence unknown to
the above-mentioned author — he could appeal to his own
observation of the so-called ' JSToah-wood,' and its constant
appearance in company with mammoth bones. Wherever a
quaternary birch-trunk or alder-trunk protrudes from the
earth, whether upon the mainland or the islands, Djergili
knows that mammoth tusks may be looked for. He had to
admit, however, that his view was untenable, when in 1893
I was able to show him the fine tall alder bushes [Alnus
fruticosa) fifteen or twenty feet high, with their leaves and
seed cones still upon them, which projected from the
quaternary strata above the stone ice on Great LiakhofT
Island.

He tlien admitted that these remains of vegetation could

NEW SIBERIA AND THE NORTH POLE 351

not have been brought there by the Deluge, and was con-
vmcecl that here, on the New Siberia Islands, at the time
when the mammoth inhabited them, there must also have
existed a vegetation such as we now find on the mainland
several hundred miles further south, close to the present
forest limit. Moreover, Djergili can now distinguish from
each other the several sorts of wood to be found on the New
Siberia Islands — the modern drift wood, the remains of
quaternary vegetation (the so-called ' Noah-wood '), and
the tertiary growths which bear witness to a much warmer
climate at the time when they were deposited.

So important is the part played by drift wood in the
economy of these northern regions, to say nothing of its
share in piloting our daring adventurers across the Polar
Sea, that we need not apologise for dwelling a little upon
the history of these relics of vegetation. In order to under-
stand the matter fully, we must go as far back in the geo-
logical history of these regions as our imperfect knowledge
permits.

Apart from certain Cambrian strata on the Olenek river
at 71-|^° N. lat., and the perhaps contemporaneous strata of
the Hekla-Hook formation on Spitzbergen, the earliest fossili-
ferous strata in the polar regions are the Silurian beds on the
islands north of America, including Grinnell Land (up to 80°
N. lat.), and, at the other side of the Pole, on Kotelnoi (76°
N. lat.), where the rocks are composed of layers of Silurian
coral. These strata were all deposited by the sea, and con-
tain no remains of vegetation. This is also the case in the
Devonian strata immediately above them, found on the islands
of the North American Archipelago, on Nova Zembla, in the
northern ranges of the Ural Mountains, and on Kotelnoi. In
the subsequent Carboniferous period, too, a polar ocean

352 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

covered Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and the Ural Mountains,
and stretched eastward to the mouth of the Lena.

The probabihty is that during the earher Paleeozoic period
(the Silurian and Devonian period) a circumpolar sea must
have covered the Arctic area, while in the later Palasozoic
period some portions of land already emerged here and there.
Amono- the remains of vesjetation which bear witness to this
fact we may mention hiorria, calamites, and lepidodendron,^
of which the same characteristic species are found in Ireland,
the Bear Islands in the far north, and in Siberia, on the
Yenisei, in 55° IST. lat. These remains of vegetation furnish
evidence of a continental period with extensive forests, at a
time between the Devonian age and the Carboniferous age,
which has been named the ' Ursa period.'

Towards the end of the Palseozoic age, in the Permian
period, we again find marked evidence of a division into land
and sea in the polar regions. For example, we find Permian
marine deposits spread over Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla,
proving that during the Permian period they were under
water. Further east, on the other hand, be3^ond the Ural
Mountains, no trace of Permian marine deposits has been
found in the northern portions of the Siberian mainland ; so
that all this region, whose flora is mainly known from the
graphite-bearing strata on the lower Tunguska, was probably
dry land during the Permian period.

During the following period, the Triassic period (the
beginning of the Mesozoic age), this land was surrounded b)^
a vast sea which covered half of north-east Asia, from the
mouth of the Amur to that of the Lena, thus forming a con-

' Calamites, a plant related to the existiun; eqiiisetaccu (horse-tail, soft-grass)
formed large tree-like growths in the Carboniferous period. Knorria and lepi-
dodenclron also, whose present representatives are insignificant herbs (lycopo-
diacea), at that period grew into great forests.

NEW SIBERIA AND THE NORTH POLE 353

tinuous Pacific-Arctic Ocean. During tlie following part of
the Mesozoic period too (tlie Jurassic period), and the earlier
part of the Cretaceous period, this ocean still covered the
polar regions and north-east Asia.

This part of North-East Siberia which, during the close
of the Palaeozoic, and the greater part of the Mesozoic age,
lay under the sea, has since been elevated and crumjjled up
into a series of mountain chains ; while, on the other hand,
the old West-Siberian continent forms an even table-land,
broken up into separate plateaux, which date right back to
the Cambrian period.

During the Jurassic period this table-land was covered
with luxuriant vegetation, remains of which are admirably
preserved in the rich fossiliferous strata around Irkutsk.
The rivers of this Siberian Jurassic continent, then as now,
carried tree-trunks down with them to what was then the
Polar Sea, where they eventually sank to the bottom, and are
preserved among the other marine deposits of that period.
Thus, in the marine Jurassic strata at the mouth of the
Anabar Eiver, there are numbers of tree-trunks which
strikingly resemble modern drift wood, although millions of
years have passed since they floated down to the spot where
we now find them. It is worthy of note that the vegetable
remains, both here and in the strata deposited by the sea
which at that time covered Spitzbergen, Franz-Josef Land,
and Greenland, seem to belong exclusively to the pine
family. This fact supports the hypothesis of climatic zones,
and especially of a boreal zone as early as the Jurassic
period ; while the fossils from the subsequent Cretaceous
period, both in the north (in Greenland) and in the south
(New Zealand), seem to point to a warm climate.

Towards the end of the Mesozoic age, the coast-line of

A A

354 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

the great Pacific- Arctic Ocean must liave steadily retreated ;
for on all tlie Arctic islands we find deposits of the
tertiary age, traces of a land flora which prove that they
must all, at that time, have formed parts of a great continent,
continuous with the continent of Siberia. Even on the ISTew
Siberia Islands and Bennett Island vegetable remains (lignite)
have been found, which support this theory. Certain it is
that during the tertiary age the climate was much milder
than it is now, both in Greenland (where, at Atanekerdluk,
about 70° N. lat., there have been found remains of some
two hundred species of plants, excellent^ preserved) in
Spitzbergen (about 78°), and in Grinnell Land (81° 42'). In
these regions, now absolutely treeless, the investigations
of Heer, Nathorst, and others, have shown that there
then flourished such trees as the swamp cypress (now found
in Elorida), the walnut, hickory, poplar, oak, magnolia, hazel,
lime, ash, elm, as well as grape-vines, and many other
species of southern vegetation. According to Heer, the
mean temperature of Greenland during that portion of the
tertiary age when the fossiliferous strata of Atanekerdluk
were deposited, must have been about 12° C. (53° Falir.), and
the mean winter temperature about 5° C. (40° Fahr.). ISTow
the mean temperature is more like —8° C. (18° Fahr.), and
the mean temperature of January about —15° C. (5° Fahr.).
The vegetable remains from the tertiary age on the other side
of the Pole (in Kamschatka, Saghalien, and Japan) seem to
indicate a smaller difference between the mean temperatures
of that period and those of the present day. Some writers
therefore conjecture that during a part of the tertiary age
the Pole may have been situated nearer Siberia than at
present. If, at the Pole itself, we should find some remains
of the great Arctic tertiary continent, its vegetable fossils

NEW SIBERIA AND THE NOETH POLE o55

will help us to answer the important question whether the
Pole has shifted its position since the tertiary age.

We now approach the latest period in the history of the
polar area ; but before entering upon it, let us cast a rapid
glance over the geological structure {tehtonik) of the Arctic
regions.

Of all the Arctic localities, Spitzbergen is that which has
been most closely investigated from the structural point of
view. We know that it consists of a tableland broken up
by a series of rifts, running north-west and south-east, as do
the individual dislocations ^ in the structure.

The North-Siberian mainland exhibits, on the whole,
a similar structural scheme. West of the great dividing-
line which about coincides w^ith the course of the Lena, we
have a tableland broken up into smaller plateaux ; and
through the rifts and fissures between the different plateaux
great volcanic masses (trap or basalt) have been thrust up
from the depths, and have spread over portions of the table-
land— over the Cambrian, Silurian, Permian, Triassic, and
Jurassic strata.

To the east of the great dividing-line, on the other hand,
we find a large expanse of crumpled surface, whose
individual corrugations (mountain chains) run, as a rule,
from north to south.

In Greenland, likewise, at the places where the originally
regular horizontal stratification has been disturbed by
subsequent upheavals of the crust of the earth, we find the
ridges running north and south. And the same orientation

^ The surface is in many places divided by rifts into separate flalies, like the
pieces of a mosaic ; and where an individual flake has been displaced in relation
to the rest (has been depressed, twisted, or tilted up), the phenomenon is
described as a dislocation.

A a2

356 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF HANSEN

recurs in tlie JSTew Siberia Islands, which really form an
extension of the Yerkhoian mountain range.

Southern Siberia, on the other hand, belongs structurally
to the Central Asian sj^stem, its geological framework
running east and west.

We might call the north and south orientation of the
polar mountain chains the Ural orientation, in contra-
distinction to the Alpine orientation of the Tethydic
mountain chains, which group themselves around the
present and the primseval Mediterranean (Tethys).

The Ural orientation of the Arctic mountain chains
combines with a number of other facts to support the theory
of a former continuity between the separate pieces of land
in the polar area. It seems to me that, in order to decide
the question whether all the Arctic islands, Greenland,
Spitzbergen, Franz- Josef Land, &c., are to be regarded as
remainder islands (that is to say, survivals from a former
continuous continent), we require a closer geological in-
vestigation of the striking analogy between the structure of
all these Arctic islands and that of the Siberian continent.
According to my view, these islands probably represent a
great Arctic-Siberian continent, rather than a separate polar
continent.

What, then, was the aspect of the Arctic area during the
quaternary age (the Ice Age) ? On this point tliere are
many questions yet to be answered.

One and the same quaternary formation can be traced
from the Siberian mainland over to the New Siberia
Islands. The mainland and these islands at that time
formed a continuous stretch of land, where dwelt herds of
the great extinct mammals, the mammoth, the woolly-haired
rhinoceros, &c. It is the remains of these animals which

NEW SIBERIA AXD THE NORTH POLE 357

every year tempt the mammotli-searcliers to make their
laborious and perilous expeditions to the inhospitable
islands.

But whether this fauna was contemporaneous with the
European inter-glacial fauna, or rather represents its
immediate successors, must still be regarded as an open
question. Was the archipelago which now lies north of
ISTew Siberia at that time covered b}' the sea, like tlie Taimyr
peninsula and the Petchora district ? ^ Or was there north
of New Siberia and SannikofF Land a great continent
covered with land ice like that of Greenland, and were the
mammoth and the musk-ox driven southward to TSTew
Siberia by the gradual advance of the ice sheet ?

' Are there mammoth tusks there, too ? ' This is the
important question which my old friend Djergili was so
anxious to have answered, although rather for practical
than for scientific reasons. And if he should one day learn
that a band of thirteen brave men have returned from the
unknown regions with a rich booty — although of a more
ideal nature than that on which Djergili's heart is set — my
philosophic friend will doubtless come to the conclusion
that Tangara is so great, so good, and so wise, that he
makes his itschitds everywhere keep watch and ward over
the ' great island-farers.'

^ In these regions the sea which once covered them has almost obhterated
all traces of the glacial epoch ; but now and then fine striations are found under
moraine rubble.

358 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

CHAPTER XX

ON BOAED THE 'FEAM'
By W. C. Beogger

The wind had been right ahead the whole day, ever since
we started from Landegode. We had first made a tack
under full sail right across the Yestfiord towards Moskenaes
Island, and had now put about, and were heading straight
for the passage south-east of Skraaven.

The steady fresh breeze had swept the sky clean, and
lifted the sea into foam-topped waves which plashed mono-
tonously against the broad bow of the Fram, as she ploughed
her way through them, as heavy as an old Dutch galliot and
as steady as a rock.

Up on the bridge the pilot, Haagensen, was pacing to
and fro in sturdy security, now and then shouting an order
to the man at the wheel in his homel}^ Xordland dialect.
But the fairway was at this point so clear that there was not
very much for a pilot to do — a wide channel in front, and a
steady wind blowing, hour after hour.

At the end of the bridge Xansen had rigged up for him-
self an open-air studio — an easel and a few boxes of pastel
colours — and here he sat the whole evening, and well on into
the night, in his yellow-grey silk waterproof, heedless of the
cold wind (which, however, was gradually dropping), dabbing
on colours, and smudging with his fingertips on the sand-

ON BOARD THE TRAM'

359

paper, so intently and indefatigably that he rubbed the skin
oif. The blood trickled from the abrasion, and made a broad-
red stripe down the sky of his landscape.

THE ' FRAM ' IN BERGEN

And the landscape the Fram was passing was indeed
worth painting in its sunset radiance. No pen could

360 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

possibly draw a true picture of its ever-clianging splendour
of form and hue.

Ea.stward, illumined by the reflection of the sinking sun,
rose the whole mighty array of the crests, and peaks, and
summits of the mainland ; while to the west, the endless
snow-flecked Lofoten-Wall loomed dark and threatening, a
chain of Alps springing right up from the sea. The sun
was so low that the island mountains la}^ entirely in the
shadow, da,rk purple silhouettes against the marvellously
soft and shifting colours of the evening sky.

Over the highest peaks hung heavy greyish-white masses
of cloud, now melting into the strips of snow, which formed
a delicate lace-like collar round the shoulders of Vaagekallen,
now transpierced by the smouldering glow of the evening
sun, which, down towards Moskenees Island, formed a con-
tinuous broad band of gold over the low-lying banks of mist,
like the reflection of a sea of fire in the far distance.

Above our heads stretched the pale evening sky, toning
off into greenish-blue and the most delicate rose-pink, so
cloudless, and bright, and pure, that it seemed as though
Heaven had specially willed that jSFansen and his comrades
should see our land at its very loveliest, without stain or
flaw, before they bade it farewell. And beneath us leaped
the glorious sea, still crisping into foam-crests that shone
white on the dark-blue ground — our forefathers' royal road
to ' fame and might,' ^ the road on which the Fram was now
covering the first stages of her way to immortality.

The Fram plodded doggedly on towards Skraaven.
Hour after hour the strange sharp peak stood out right
ahead of us, seeming always to recede as we advanced.

' Ad allusion to the Danish national song, Kong Christian stod .ved hojen
Mast.

ON BOAED THE TEAM' 361

The Fram, as we know, does not pretend to be a clipper.
She has no occasion for speed, she has the years before her.
Eight you are, Fram ! Slow and sure wins in the end. Chi
va piano va sano, chi va forte va in morte.

The Fram was now comparatively trim and ship-shape ;
Sverdrup himself had superintended the cleaning process,
and worked the hose the whole afternoon, while Gjertsen
followed him with the mop, and whole rivers of water poured
through the scuppers, carrying with them all superfluities. I
should not like to swear that they did not now and then squirt
a drop or two among Nansen's pastels, when they happened
to pass under the bridge ; but it could not be helped — the
Fram had to bestir herself in order to look presentable when
she got to Tromso, and a daily scouring was necessary to
remove all traces of the coal-shifting operations in jSTgero-
sund.

Now the coal was finally stowed away in the hold, and
the greater part of the dried fish cleared from the deck both
fore and aft, so that the ship began to look fairly habitable
again. This clearing up had cost a good deal of trouble,
for the crew was small, and things were not yet quite in work-
ing order. The chief difficulty lay in the fact that the cargo
was so exceedingly heterogeneous. It is not so easy to get
everything into order when an exact account has to be
kept of where all the innumerable articles are stowed, so
that they may always be at hand when needed, perhaps in
the moment of danger. Thus every one had his own depart-
ment to attend to in addition to the general work of the
ship, and the average day was anything but a holiday.

Even now, one or two had not yet finished their day's
work. The first mate was busy carpentering. Little Scott
Hansen was ever}^ one's favourite ; although a mere boy to

362

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEX

undertake such a voyage — he was only twenty-five — he did
his man's work with the best of them. He was always in
good humour, always friendly and pleasant to every one \
but his eyes would beam with affection when they fell upon
the barometers and chronometers and all his other dear
instruments up in the chart-room, which had been placed

SCOTT HANSEN

under his care.

rologist

He was to be both astronomer and meteo-
it mate into the bargain, and a little of
everything else. He was expecting to meet Professor Mohn
next day up at Lodingen, and was consequently very busy
putting together a cage for his thermometers, planing and
nailing away until far on in the evening.

ON BOARD THE ' FRAM ' 363

There was not mucli room on the deck of the Fram ;
indeed, there was scarcely a spot that was not cumbered with
deck cargo of all sorts. Almost the whole space forward
was taken up with the supports for the longboats, and the
superstructures over the hold, to say nothing of an immense
number of odds and ends, such as a huge pair of bellows,
a spare crow's-nest, a great tool-chest, &c. But aft it was
even worse — what with a stack of timber (planks, beams,
&c.), a number of large beer-barrels (a steadily diminishing
number, it must be adrnitted), the huge spare rudder and
spare propeller, several parts of the great windmill for gene-
rating electricity when the coal is exhausted, capacious
tanks for petroleum and gas oil, one of the boats, and finally,
under the bridge, a whole pile of dried fish to feed the dogs
who were to be taken on board at Yugor Strait.

Around the wheel, however, was a small open space
built in with deck cargo, where one could actually put one's
foot on the deck and sit cosily sheltered from the wind. This
was the favourite evening rendezvous of those who had time
to spare for a smoke and a chat.

Here we sat this evening in the twilight, while the Fram
buffeted its way through the seas under the Lofoten-Wall —
Hendriksen, Gjertsen, Jacobsen, Christiansen (one of the
Greenland party), and I. The pipes were in full blast and
the talk in full swing.

Jacobsen was a capital narrator, when you could work
him up to the point, which was not every day. He had seen
a great deal of the world between the South Pole and the
North, and had an unusually rich stock of experiences to
draw upon. Whether he was recounting his adventures
among the Maories of New Zealand or among the ice floes of
Nova Zembla, he always managed to put an extraordinary

364 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAN SEN

amount of life into the situation, and to transport his hearers
into the thick of it. This evening he was teUing the story
of his polar-bear hunts, with one of the Bourbon princes, on
Spitzbergen, and he graphically depicted for us all the man-
ners and customs of the polar bear, its spirit of inquiry and
its clumsy cunning. I have since read somewhere that at
parting the prince presented him with his own gold watch ;
of that he said nothino- and I saw nothing of it while I was
on board the Fram.

HENDRIKSEN

Polar bears being the topic, first one and then another
contributed something of his own experiences.

' How many bears have you shot, Hendriksen, roughly
speaking ? ' asks the mate.

Hendriksen was a Balsfiord man ; the shape of his fore-
head, his broad cheek bones, and the whole type of his
physiognomy seemed to indicate that he had Quasn blood in
his veins. Be this as it may, he was a good-natured and
genial fellow, and one who could put his shoulder to the
wheel to some purpose when strength was needed. He had

ON BOAED THE ' FRAM '

365

now sailed tlie Arctic Sea in ever}^ direction for fourteen con-
secutive seasons, ever since he was nineteen ; during ail
these years he had never felt the heat of summer, until he
had come south for a short time to help in fitting out the
Fram.

He was not a man of many words, but it was easy to see
that he was by no means yearning to repeat his experience
of the summer temperature. He was one of those members
of the crew who preferred to pass the night in one of the
' hotels ' on deck, either in the Grand Hotel or in Gravesen's
— so they had christened the
two longboats. It is true
that these boats were deeply
padded with all sorts of
packages of furs, so that you
could no doubt make yourself
a comfortable enough bed
among them, when once you
had wormed your way down
through the layers of hand-
sledges, . snow-shoes, kaiaks,
and other Arctic appliances
which were piled up in these
airy hanging hotels a la Semiramis.

' I've never kept count of them,' answered the giant
evasively.

'I daresay you may put it at fifty at least,' said the
mate.

' Oh no ! perhaps something like forty — white bears, I
mean,' he added, as though a mere white bear were scarcely
worth speaking about.

' Have any of you shot brown bears then ? ' I asked.

MOGSTAD

366 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

' Yes, Mogstad has killed several,' replied the mate,
* The first one, he had another man to help him, but
that was when he was only sixteen. Five or six years
afterwards he kept a bear barricaded in his lair for a whole
month, and then let him out, and put a bullet in him as he
ran. Oh, he's a rare hand at all sorts of things, is Mogstad
— you won't easily find him at a loss.'

' But Sverdrup has shot brown bears too ! ' remarked
Christiansen, who was now at the wheel and had hitherto
not opened his mouth. He and Sverdrup were both Bindal
men, so he felt he must stand up for his district ; as a rule
it was not easy to get a word out of him. He was evidently
suffering agonies of indecision as to whether he should go
on with the ship or not, although he had declared in
advance that he would go no further than Tromso. JSTot
that the Greenland trip had frightened him off — it was
■other hindrances that stood in his way.

Sverdrup had now relieved the pilot, and was pacing
backwards and forwards on the bridge, with an even, slow
step. The Fram and he are in reality not unlike each
other ; the same indescribable air of solidity and security
breathes around them both. Each has a very thick outer
hull, but within all is snug and warm and sound. Now and
again he stops beside Nansen, and watches him mingling the
colours on his paper, but as a rule says nothing and resumes
his walk, casting quick searching glances ahead over the sea.

Whoever has seen Sverdrup on board the Fram knows
well that he is the right man in the right place. The Fram
is no luxurious pleasure-yacht, nor is Sverdrup a model of
courtly elegance — but you may be sure that

Afloat 'twixt sky and sea,
The first of men is he.

OTTO SVERDKUP

ON BOARD THE ' FRAM ' 367

About the wheel the talk went merrily, undisturbed by wind
or weather. The waves kept on gurgling up into the rudder
hole, which, besides fulfilling its original purpose, served as
a gigantic spittoon. Now and again an extra puff of wind
would come, and the rio-oino- would creak as the sails
tightened ; while the throb of the pistons in the engine-
room supplied a monotonous accompaniment. Behind the
pile of planks and the boat which shut us off from the bul-
warks, we could hear Kvik, the Greenland dog, snoring and
growling in his sleep, keeping up a sort of murmur of con-
tentment, now and then interrupted by a short bark.

' That confounded cur ! ' said the mate. ' What do you
think he's done to-day ? Eaten up the soles of a pair of
bran new slippers that Amundsen had got from his wife.'

Kvik was everybody's favourite on board ; but he had an
unfortunate habit of devouring whatever he came across in
the way of leather or skins, without the smallest respect of
persons. Field-glass straps and shoe-soles, portmanteaus and
portfolios, everything that was made of an animal's skin was
for him a dainty scarcely to be resisted, though he knew that
indulgence would be followed by a beating. After all, he
had to lay in strength for the voyage. Young as he was, he
had seen more of the world than most dogs or men, having
travelled from East Greenland to Copenhagen with the
Eyder Expedition, then from Copenhagen to Lysaker ; and
now he was on his way from Lysaker to the Polar Sea.

' Amundsen is married, is he ? ' I asked.

' Why, of course he is ! He's the most married of the
whole lot of us. He has a wife and six children. It's a
wonder he can leave such a lot at home for so long a time.'

' Has he been north before ? '

' Yes, he was out sealing with the Diana one season, and

368 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

then last year he went to the Yenisei with a cargo from
Shields. Oh yes, he's quite at home in the high latitudes,
he is.'

' Juell, the steward, is he married too ? '

' Why of course he is — married and has children,' said
Gjertsen. ' That fine figure of a woman you saw on board
on the way from Christiania to Horten, you know — that's his
wife. She's been a lot about with him, too. A few years
ago she went with him rio-ht to the Gold Coast, and when
they were going ashore, Juell thought he should never see

AMUNDSEN

his wife again — for all of a sudden the boatmen, the niggers
you know, as naked as my hand, took and seized her in
their arms and jumped into the water with her. Juell
believed he'd seen the last of her ; for you know, she's un-
commonly plump and appetising, and he thought no doubt
they were cannibals, these fellows.'

' Then a great many of you are married ? ' I said.

' Oh yes, we've almost all got some one to leave behind,'
answered Hendriksen. ' Amundsen heads the list, he does,
for he has five or six children ; then Nordal has five, Juell

ON BOARD THE TRAM'

169

and I have four apiece, and then — let me see — Petterson has
two I think, and '

' And Nansen and I have one apiece,' added the mate.

My thoughts flew back to Httle Liv, and I turned mv
head and saw him still sitting up there upon the bridge, busy
with his painting, as though he had never in his life done
anything else. He had taken off his cap in order to see
better, and was shading the picture with his arm or looking
through the hollow of his hand to get a concentrated im-
pression of the colour. His bust stood out boldly, the
massive head with the short-
clipped hair showing in sharp
outline against the indescri-
bably pure and clear colours
of the evening sky. Were
his thoughts bent on his
distant goal, or were they at
home with little Liv in her
cradle ?

The evening air began to
grow chill, so I rose to go
below and get hold of my
greatcoat. As before mentioned, it was no such easy matter
to make your way about on the deck of the Fram ; so I
remarked jokingty, ' One would need either four legs or ^
pair of wings to get about among all this litter.

' You should do as Johansen did,' answered the mate.
' He walked on his hands the other day up the steps from
the fo'c'sle, across the whole of the forward deck, up the
steps to the after deck, and down the companion into the
cabin : and I'm bothered if he was even red in the face when
he put his feet down again upon the floor of the saloon.'

B B

JOHANSEN

o70 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

' Oil, that's nothing for Johansen, he's the first gymnast
in Norway,' remarked Gjertsen. 'In Paris, he made a clean
somersault over forty-two men, so that the Frenchmen
thought there would be nothing but a wet spot left when he
came down. But he fell on his feet, as right as possible.
He got a gold medal for that, too ! '

' Amundsen's not bad at that sort of thing, either, you know.
What do you think he did the other day down at Eorvik,
while we were loading all that beastly coal ? He Avas up in
the main-top and wanted to come down to the deck, forward.
Confound me if he didn't slide down the stay from the main-
top to the fore-top, holding on by his hands alone all the
way ! There isn't another man on board could have done it ;
but Amundsen's fists are as hard as shoe leather, and no
mistake. And then, of course, he's a bit lighter than I am,
for example,' said Gjertsen.

I, unable to emulate either of these feats, made my way
as well as I could over the obstacles that bestrewed the after
deck, past the chart-room, in the open doorway of which
several powder-casks were piled up drying, and down the
cabin companion — a journey which, if it did not require a
gymnast of the first rank, was certainly not to be recom-
mended to a gouty subject or a fat man.

The cabin steps went right past the galley, where Juell
YSiS at that moment deep in his culinary occupations. A
tempting smell of cooking greeted my nostrils, and I looked
in for a moment to warm myself a little and have a chat.

Juell stood in his shirt-sleeves busy at his work, the per-
spiration pouring down his high forehead, and his heavy
moustaches drooping like a bridle from the corners of his
mouth.

' Nice and warm here, Juell,' said I.

ON BOARD THE ' FRAM '

T7 1

Di 1

' Warm ! I should think it was ! When all the pots
are boiling for dinner I believe the devil himself would singe
his nose if he poked it in here. It's the hardest job I've ever
had in my life. I've made many a voyage in my day, but
this is the first time I've shipped as cook, and if I come
safe and sound back again, it shall be the last time ! Take
my advice. Professor, and never be a cook, whatever jou.
are.'

' No, no, Juell — we can't all be tailors, you know. I
don't suppose I'm in much danger of receiving an appoint-
ment as chef. But when you
come home again, Juell, I
hope I shall be able to give
you a dinner and say takfor
sidst,^ and thank you for all
the good dinners on board
the Fram.'

' Thanks for the invita-
tion,' answered Juell. ' But
it won't be for some time yet,
I'm afraid. If only Peik here
will hold out till we come
back, I daresay it won't be such a bad trip after all.'

' Peik ' was the popular name for an insulated cooking-
apparatus, of Finne's invention, a great contrivance which
held the warmth very long. JSTansen took a lively interest in
it, and several times, while I w^as on board, assisted at the
cooking of the dinner, in order to familiarise himself with
the working of Peik. And Peik cooked many excellent
things. The fare on board the Fram, in spite of Juell's
apologies for his deficiencies as a culinary artist, was really

^ ' Thanks for our last meeting ' — a common form of salutation.

372 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

capital and not at all monotonous. The menu generally
consisted of soup or fisli, and a disli of meat, with half a
bottle of beer a head, so long as the beer lasted. I remember,
for instance, that the first dinner I ate on board consisted ol
tinned fish-puddings from Stavanger, tinned rabbit from Aus-
tralia, and wild ducks which Nansen had shot on the way.
A great variety of German preserved vegetables were used
in the soups, and American cranberry jam was often served
with the meat. The provisioning of the ship, like all the
rest of its equipment, was most carefully thought out in all
its details. There was a particularly large supply of vege-
tables and of fatt}^ matter, so that, so long as it stuck to the
Fram^ the expedition should not suffer from ' fat-hunger,' as
the Greenland explorers had suffered. There were no less
than 13,000 lbs, of butter on board, one-third of it the best
Danish butter, and the rest superfine margarine, a present
from Pellerin & Co. While I was on board we ate
nothing but this margarine ; it was of such excellent quality
that I do not think anyone would have taken it for arti-
ficial butter, unless he liad been told.

On the whole, the ship was lavishly provisioned; you
could scarcely name a thing that was not in stock, and
generally in considerable quantities. One thing, however,
was entirely absent, and that was alcohol — for drinking,
that is to say. The spirits for preserving ' specimens ' would
scarcely come under the heading of commissariat.

A passing steamer in Trondhiem fiord had thrown us a
bottle of port wine, bidding us drink it at the North Pole.
This was — with the exception of the beer, which was calculated
to last for a couple of months — all the drinkable alcohol on
board. ' You must lay in one or two bottles of champagne
in Tromso, Nansen,' I said one day in a joke, ' to drink a skaal

ON BOARD THE ' FRAM ' 373

for Gamle Norge, when you hoist your flag on the axis of
the earth.' ' I was thinking of smugghng on board one
or two bottles of brandy for Christmas Eve,' lie answered,
' but you needn't speak about it to the men.' The doctor
afterwards swore me to secrecy, and told me that he, too, in-
tended to smuggle a bottle or so on board at Tromso.

I can see in my mind's eye the saloon on Christmas Eve,
with the steaming todd}?- on the table. If I know JSTansen
aright, the dose for each man will be of the homoeopathic
order. How clearly it stands forth in my memory, that
cosy little low-roofed cabin, with the small state-rooms
around it !

' Saloon ' is a misleading word to use. The Frarns
saloon was little more than a cot. But the thought of the high
endeavour to which it was dedicated made it seem loftier and
more spacious than the most majestic hall. In itself, too, it
was a cosy little retreat, exceedingly pleasant to creep down
into when it was too raw and cold and wet to remain on
deck.

On the front wall of the saloon, between the two entrance
doors, was placed a long sofa with high end-posts carved
into dragons' heads. It was covered with a heavy rug of
bright Norwegian colours. In front of it stood the long-
narrow dining-table ; by making ourselves as small as pos-
sible, we could all (except those on watch) sit down to it at
once. The table-service was the same for all dishes ; an
enamelled tin plate and a big enamelled cup.

Over the middle of the sofa hung, in a frame, an admira-
bly painted design for tapestry, by Gerhard Munthe, repre-
senting three fairy-tale princesses surprised by three princes
transformed into bears. To the left of this little masterpiece

374 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

hung a woodland scene by Eilif Peterssen, and on the right
a dehcate sketch in coloured chalks by Skredsvig, represent-
ing the point and landing-stage at Hansen's home at Lysaker,
with, under it, a study from Jsederen by Kitty Kielland.

Against the right hand wall stood an harmonium made by
JSFystrom & Co., of Karlstad. It was arranged so that it could
be played either by means of the keys like a piano, or with
a handle, like a barrel-organ, the tune being determined by
a strip of perforated paper. Its repertory consisted of over
a hundred pieces, from the minuet in Don Giovanni and airs
from Der Freischiltz, down to the commonest dance tunes.
As an institution, however, it did not seem to be particularly
popular ; at any rate there was a unanimous movement on
board for buying a concertina in Tromso, and great expecta-
tions were abroad as to what Moostad would do with his
violin when he joined the ship.

Over the harmonium hung a picture by Hansteen, and
betw^een the door of Scott Hansen's comfortable and taste-
fully arranged cabin and the back wall of the saloon, hung a
little woodland sketch also by Hansteen ; while over the
stove (a petroleum pipe-stove made by Blunck, which served
at the same time as a ventilating apparatus), in the middle of
the back wall, hung a third painting, a study of birch-stems,
by the same artist.

On the left wall, between the entrance to Dr. Blessing's
and Sverdrup's cabins, was fixed a stand with seven Krag-
Jorgensen carbines. These, however, were only a small
portion of the ship's armament, which consisted in all of
no fewer than thirty-two rifles and twenty-four revolvers,
all of the best quality, to say nothing of two cannons, and a
great store of ammunition.

Above the stand of guns hung another charming picture

ON BOARD THE TRAM' 375

by Skredsvig — the fir-trees in front of Nansen's liouse, a
winter landscape with snow.

A httle way froni the table, the great mast divided the
saloon into two parts. It was surrounded by a quite narrow
upholstered seat, which, however, was seldom used. Loose
stools were scattered about the cabin.

Light was supplied at night by several incandescent
electric lamps over the sofa. The great arc lamp was not
used while I was on board.

One other detail must not be omitted : the Norwegian
lion on a red background in the skylight over the stove.

Such was the saloon of the Fram. The roof was so low
that Gjertsen, Hendriksen, and Juell could touch it with
their hats, and so narrow that at scarcely any part of it
could two couples pass each other without turning sideways.

LIow every little detail between these low walls has fixed
itself in my memory, from the half-frightened, half-curious
expression on the faces of Munthe's princesses, to the check
rug on the sofa seat, which, however, Nansen used to turn
wrong side up every day, for he found that the many pairs
of coal-dusty and tarry trousers left too obvious traces on
the pattern, and were already beginning to soften the gay
colours rather too much. ' It's got to last till we come
back again,' said Nansen, ' so we must be sparing of our
splendours.'

In the saloon I found the supper-table still spread,
although it was already pretty late. The engineers who had
been on duty had come up to have supper and draw a breath
of fresh air, which they had well earned ; for the stoke-hole
of the Fram, a paradise no doubt in the polar winter, so
long as the coal lasts, must in these more southerly latitudes
and in summer have seemed very much the reverse.

;76

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

There they sat, then, the two athletes aforesaid, Engi-
neer Amundsen and Lieutenant and Stoker Johansen, enjoy-
ing their rest and their supper. Presently in came Scott
Hansen and Dr, Blessing, and we got a warm cup of tea
from the steward and attacked the supper manfully— I,
indeed, for the second time.

I knew that I should probably eat only one more supper
on board the Fram, and recollections streamed in upon me
of my days on board, which had passed so quickly, along

with many a thought of the
days that were as yet hidden
in the mists of the future-
In the mxcantime, the supper
and the talk went on as
usual, Juell going backwards
and forwards and assisting
in both. The talk ran on all
sorts of topics, but of course
chiefly on the Fram and
everything connected with
her. Now the petroleum
launch was the theme — one

BLESSING . ^

held that it was a wretched
affair altogether, that it was quite impossible to keep it
clean, and that after you had used it once, it took half a
day to make it fit for use again, while another defended it
and maintained that, with its great speed, it would be in-
valuable for reconnaissances, &c. Then some one described
what a sharp look-out 3^ou had to keep among the open lanes
in the ice, how it felt to get into an Arctic fog, and so forth.
I was to take no part in all this, so felt myself rather
outside the conversation. I turned to the Doctor and said,

ON BOARD THE TRAM' 377

' Takfor maden,^ Doctor. It will probably be a long time
before you and I have supper together again on board the
Fram.'

' Two summers, I expect,'. said the Doctor, with his usual
cheery confidence.

' If you have good luck, perhaps you'll be back next
autumn,' said I.

' That would be the devil's own luck,' was the answer.

' No luck at all,' Amundsen put in. ' If anything w^orth
while is to come of the trip, we must be away two years at
the very least.'

A hearty burst of laughter greeted Amundsen's frank
prognostication. His view of the matter was undeniably
both a stoical and a practical one.

After supper I went into my cabin to rest a little and
get out my overcoat before going on deck again. JSTansen
had given up his own cabin to me, and slept in the deck-
house while I was on board. The door to his cabin was on
the right, well forward in the saloon, and, like all the doors
in the Fram, was immensely solid, with a high threshold.
None of the cabins had any sort of window^ (the sides of the
ship were twentj^-four inches thick), and when the door was
closed, the only means of ventilation was a couple of small
holes in the door itself. It was of course pitch dark, too,
unless the incandescent lamps, with which each cabin was
provided, were lighted.

When you entered the cabin and turned the knob for
the electric light, the first thing it shone upon was an
admirable drawing by Werenskiold : ' Eva with little Liv in
her lap.' Thus all that was dearest in the world confronted

^ ' Thanks for the food ! ' — a formiila always used at the end of a meal.

378 LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEN

him tlie moment he put his head in at the cabin door. I
well remember one morning when he came to fetch some-
thing before I had got up. He turned the button while
still in the doorwaj^ and began to chat with me ; but I saw
where his eyes fell, and where his thoughts were.

Under the picture was a bench, a sofa by day, a bed by
night. Here were no soft spring mattrasses, only a stuffed
pallet with a pair of warm blankets and a single very meagre
pillow. But how sound one could sleep on this simple
couch — that is to say, when the Fram was not rolling so as
to land one on the floor every now and then.

For the Fram could roll, at any rate before the cargo
was shifted in the Nserosund.

Scott Hansen declared that she had described an angle
of forty-six degrees in a heavy sea off Lister. It must have
been an uncomfortable night ; the whole forward deck was
deep in water, so that the deck cargo was washing about
from one side to the other, and at last there was nothing for
it but to throw overboard a number of paraffin barrels.
Fortunate^ they were only empty barrels intended for
preserving the skins of bears, seals, walruses, and other
game ; and there were plenty of them left. Even while I
was on board the Fram, she rolled a good deal one night,
although it was not blowing particularly hard, and the sea
did not run very high — indeed, there was only a long
swell. In crossing the Vestfiord, on the other hand, when
it was blowing quite fresh, the ship was as steady as a
rock the moment she was under full sail. She was, indeed,
a strange, a unique vessel. Sverdrup, who, as a rule, said
little enough, could not help now and then giving expression
to his affectionate surprise in a subdued ' She's a rare little
craft, and wo mistake!'

ON BOARD THE ' FRAM ' 379

But to return to Nansen's cabin. On one side of the
end wall was a cupboard containing the cash-box, papers,
diaries, &c., the key of which was in Nansen's own keeping ;
on the other side, near the head of the bed or sofa, was a
bookcase with a rich selection of literature of many kinds.
Numbers of books had been presented to the Fram by
Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish publishers and others.
The tolerably extensive library thus formed was always at
the disposal of the crew. Besides, the doctor had his
own medical library in his cabin, and Scott Hansen kept a
collection of books, mainly meteorological and astronomical,
along with the charts in the chart room. But Nansen
had picked out for his own use a number of books which he
kept in his cabin. They were for the most part, of course,
geographical, geological, zoological, and other scientific
w^orks,-^ but with a fair sprinkling of imaginative literature
and philosophy. Ibsen and Biornson, Yinje, Jonas Lie,
Euneberg, and others were represented, some of them by
their complete works ; and here too were Tennyson, Keats,
Byron, Frauenstedt's Schopenhauer, &c. — ^in short, an ample
stock of reading even for the long night of the polar winter.
When I entered on my short occupation of the cabin, the
greater part of these books lay in a chaos on the floor, along
with all sorts of other things ; so I took it upon myself to
arrange them according to subject in the bookcase, and I
made free use of this library while I was on board. This
evenino-, for instance, when I lav down on the sofa after

^ I noted the following titles : A. Geikie, Textbooh of Geology; E. Sness,
Antlitz der JErde ; A, Heini, Gletscherhionde ; K. A. Zittel, HandbucJi der
Palaontologie ; Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle; Miiller, TJnter den Tungusen
i(/nd TaTiuten ; v. Riclithofen, Fiihrer fur Forschungsreisende ; Neumayer,
Anleitung zu wissenscliaftliclien Beohachtungen auf Beisen; Vegaex])editionens
vetenshapliga taJcttagelser, &c.

380 LITE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

supper, I opened the first book that came to hand, and found
it to be Nansen's How can the North Polar Region be Crossed ?
— containing his lecture before the Eoyal Geographical
Society, and all the objections of the celebrated English
sailors. It was the first time I had seen it. It made a
peculiar and moving impression upon me as I read it here
in Nansen's own cabin.

Wlien I had done, I felt I must go up and see him.
Until that moment I had not quite grasped and realised the
significance of his enterprise. He himself was always so
easy and unpretending, and on board the Fram everything
took its daily course with such a total absence of solemnity,
that I had, as it were, lost the sensation of there being
anything unusual in this voyage. To cross Greenland, to
start for the North Pole, to go to the end of the world,
seemed no more to these men than a trip down Christiania
fiord to the ordinary mortal.

I could hear Juell's quick tongue, in the saloon, supplying
a running commentary to one of the doctor's stories ; on the
deck some one was rumbling a beer-barrel along ; the piston
kept up its regular throb, and the propeller its vibration,
while the Fram clove its way foot by foot through the sea,
slowly but surel}^ — as though driven by some natural law
ever onward and onward towards the unknown goal.

Nansen had lent me a camel's-fur jacket while I was on
board ; it was so cosy and warm that it seemed to put my
skin into a positive glow when I had it on. Thank Heaven,
I thought, he need certainly neither starve nor freeze so long
as the Fram holds together.

But if the Fram should be crushed, as one of the English
admirals prophesied ?

' Then we'll take to our longboat ' Nansen liad answered.

ON BOARD THE ' FRAM ' 381

' The boats are too big and heavy,' another admiral had
objected.

' We have five or six smaller boats with us,' was
Nansen's reply, ' and if the worst comes to the worst, we'll
get along on an ice floe ; I've done it before.'

Yes, I felt I must see him and express my affection for
him in the little time we could still be together. Up the
companion, past the steaming galley, out into the free air of
heaven !

There the Fram lay, heaving gently in the full glory of
the summer night. We had at last drawn near the peaks
of Hammero, so that we could see their green-clad base.
Before us stretched all the mountains of the mainland, those
nearest bathed in a splendid purple glow, while further
ahead they passed through all gradations of subdued colour
from tender violet to deep grey, right down to the edge of
the crisp blue-black sea.

It was strangely still. Not a soul was to be seen on the
deck, forward, and when I looked aft, to the southward, I
saw nothing but sky and sea. The solemn silence of the
summer night took such hold on my mind that I remained
leaning on the bulwarks for a long time, watching the plash
of the waves against the ship's side, before I went up to him.

There suddenly flashed upon me the recollection of a
little ragged urchin whom I had seen a few days before on
the beach near Trondhjem while I was waiting for the i^ram.
He was going barefoot in the sand, dirty and unkempt, but
beaming with health and contentment, and singing at the
top of his voice, ' Jeg gaar i fare, hvor jeg gaar ! ' ^

Then the thought of my own confirmation came upon

^ ' I go in danger wherever I go ' — the first line of a liymn.

382

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

me, when I sat in the church and shouted with all the rest,
' J eg gaar i fare, hvor jeg gaar ! ' and heard the mighty organ-
harmonies throbbing under the vaulted roof as though they
indeed represented the wrath of the Lord.

Some one came along the deck whistling a merry tune ;
it was the light-hearted Petterson, stripped to the waist in

the chill evening wind, carrying
a basin and a towel and pre-
paring to wash the grime of the
engine-room off his face and
body. He had been in the
Polar Sea before, on board the
Bertha, so that he was at home
in these waters. What a
splendidly modelled back !
How fine the play of the
muscles in his arms ! Yes
indeed, such frames as this
seemed built for a tussle with
the darkness and the fog and the cold and the ice. His
whole personality was set to a very different air from that
which was running in my head. Every line of it seemed to
sing :

' Vaer glad naar faren veier
hver evne, som du eier ! '^

and from all his comrades around, from the man who stood
at the helm, from those who were stoking the furnace, from
all who now lay sleeping in their bunks, it seemed as though
the third line came chiming in triumphantly :

' Og desto storre seier ! ' -

PETTERSON

' ' Rejoice, when danger puts to the test every faculty you possess.'
^ ' And so much greater the victory.'

ON BOARD THE TRAM' 383

I could delay no longer, I must go up to Nansen. I
clambered over boxes and boards, wormed my way between
barrels and stacks of dried fisli, and finally, in spite of all
obstacles, managed to haul myself up on the bridge.

There he still sat in his thin silk waterproof, as he had
sat hour after hour, defying the wind. When he saw me he
rose and nodded, and said, as though apologising for having
been so absorbed in his painting :

' I've just finished ! ' And then, without a pause, ' Have
you ever seen such a lovely evening ? We're lucky in our
weather, and no mistake.'

' It's a beautiful countr}-, this of ours,' I said. ' You
must make haste and come home and have a better look at
it ! — And now let me see your works of art.'

' I have a whole bundle here,' he answered. ' You shall
have the lot of them to take to Eva.'

Ah, yes — that was why he had been so busy.

' I've been down below, reading,' I went on, ' and I got
hold of that English pamphlet of yours with the plan of
your expedition. You didn't get much encouragement out
of them, in London.'

' Oh, they didn't treat me at all badly — and there wasn't
really anything to discourage one in what they said. It was
just the same when I was starting for Greenland, you know ;
and that, to my mind, was really a more ticklish business
than this. Here, thank goodness, we've got everything we
can possibly want, and I hope we shall neither starve nor
freeze.' He looked in my face with a frank smile and said
slowly and emphatically : ' Boasting apart, no ship has ever
been equipped for an Arctic voyage as this one is.'

Then he bundled up his painting things and we went
below.

384 LIFE or FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Two days later, on the evening of July 12, we parted at
Tromso. It had rained and snowed alternately all day long,
and from the top of Tromsdal Peak, right down to the gardens
along the fiord, an inch-thick sheet of new-fallen snow lay
over the green leaves and the fresh grass. An icy north wind
was blowing, so that the fiord seemed to reek beneath it,
and you could see the squalls sweeping over the water.

Nansen and I had been afoot all day making purchases.
Moreover, we had been studying geology in Tromso Museum,
had had a glass of wine at Mack's, and had, for the rest,
put in our time usefully and agreeably.

I had been aboard the Fram in the afternoon to say
good-bye, and had poked my nose into every hole and
corner to fix my impressions firmly in my memory. On
board I found Mogstad, who had now joined the ship, and
was to replace Gjertsen and Christiansen. He impressed me
as a fine, active, fearless fellow, and was doubtless a valuable
addition to the crew.

While I was busy packing my portmanteau, Nansen came
down with the water-colours and pastels, the products of
the northward voyage, which I had promised to take to his
wife. He had placed them within the leaves of JSForden-
skiold's great facsimile atlas, and remarked as he gave me
the parcel : ' You'd better take Nordenski old's book with
you ; it's so costly and valuable, it would be a great pity to
lose it if the luck should go against us, and we should have
to leave the Fram behind.'

He said this with as much nonchalance as if he had been
speaking of leaving behind an old overcoat, or a M''orn-out
pair of boots.

' You must see and bring the Frmn home with you,' I
said.

ON BOAED THE ' FRAM

385

' Oh, you may be sure we won't leave the vessel until we
can't do anything else ; but of course the ice might be so
bad that we couldn't g-et her throuoii, and then it wotdd be
annoying to have to lose more than necessary.'

That evening JSTansen and Sverdrup accompanied me on
board the Vesteraalen, and had a glass of hot toddy by way
of stirrup cup.

A last hearty embrace, and good-bye. ' My love to your

wife ! x\nd be sure and give my love to Eva and Liv and
all at home ! '

' Promise me you'll take care of yourself, and not be too
reckless — and a safe return to both you and the Fram ! And
God bless you, my dear friend ! '

The steamer's bell rings for the last time. At midnight
precisely the Vesteraalen starts for the south. I see Nansen
and Sverdrup standing erect, side by side, in the stern boat

c c

386 LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

of the Fram. For a moment more I can distinguisHNansen's
light waterproof; then the two figures seem to melt mto
one behind the veil of snow, thick as in mid- winter, which
is sweeping over the sound. One last glimpse of the Fram
through the mist, and all is over.
When shall I see him again ?

INDEX

Aaes, schoolmaster, 28, 29, 32

Advent Bay, 275

^ohos, brigantine, 266

Africa, climate during the Great Ice

Age, 147, 149
Aftenposten, quoted, 88
Aidschergaidach, 333, 335, 340
Akershus, the fortress of, 8, 199
Alaska, 144, 239, 257
Albert, sealer, 58
Aldrich, Lieut., 247
Alert, the, 246, 247, 283
Alfred the Great and the discover^' of

Biarmeland, 228
Alps, the, and the glacial theory, 144
Altmarm, Captain, 271
Ameralikfiord, 170, 190, 193, 195, 196,

197
America, in the Great Ice Age, 125,

147-150, 156, 158, 205 ; discoveries

of, 228
American Arctic expedition, its work

in Greenland, 126
Amphioxns, the study of, 115-117
Ammidsen, engineer of the Fravi, 363,

367, 368, 370, 376, 377
Amur river, 352
Anabar river, 341, 353
Anabara Bay and the glacial theory,

145
Andersen, Peder, 3
Andersson, his description of Nansen,

161
Andreassen, Captain Hemming, 271
Anjou, explorer, 257
Aral Sea, 147

Aralo-Caspian Sea, its extent, 147
Archangel, 2, 149
Archer, Colin, builder of the Fram,

310-313, 315
Arctic expeditions from the earliest

times, 224 ; polar explorations, a

chapter of victorious defeats, 224,
258 ; slow rate of progress, 224, 225 ;
comparatively short distance to the
North Pole, 225 ; difficulties of the
ice-path, 225 ; the first recorded
polar explorer, 226 ; Viking ex-
plorers, 226, 227 ; the isothermal
line, 227 ; the Atlantic base line, the
botmdary of geographical know-
ledge for five hundred years, 227 ;
early discoveries allowed to lapse in
obHvion, 227-229; oscillation of
theories regarding the polar regions :
ocean v. continent, 229, 230 ; the in-
debtedness of British commerce to
Cabot, Columbus, and Drake, 230,
231 ; commerce the principal in-
spiration to polar exploration, 231 ;
north-westerly and north-easterly
expeditions, 231-233; practical re-
sults to British trade of the north-
west voyages, 232, of the north-east
expedition, 232 ; Barents's exploits,
233-234 ; Payer's and Kane's pic-
tures of life in the polar seas, 234-
236 ; death roll, 236, 237 ; north
coast explorations, 237 ; scientific
character of later expeditions, 237,
238 ; the American v. the European
and Asiatic routes, 238, 239 ; rea-
sons why the American route was
formerly preferred,239 ; the three pas-
sages, 240 ; the Franklin expedition,
240-244 ; McClure and McClintock's
expeditions, 244, 245 ; Kane's, 245,
246; Hall's, 246; the Nares expe-
dition, 246, 247, 249, 250; Beau-
mont, Markham, and other explorers,
247-249 ; the Greely expedition,
250-251 ; importance of Greenland
as a link in the chain around the
North Pole, 252 ; Spitzbergen as an

c c 2

188

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NAXSEN

outpost, 252, 253 ; the Aiistro-Hun-
garian expedition, 254, 255 ; Dutch
scientific expedition, 255 ; Captain
Wiggins and the Vega expedi-
tion, 255, 256,; our knowledge of
the north-east passage completed,
256 ; Russian enterprise in Arctic
exploration, 257 ; the Jeannette dis-
aster, 258-260 ; the patrons of Arc-
tic explorations, 261 ; necessity for
proper equipment, 261 ; a few words
in defence of Arctic exploration, 262

Arctic exploration, Nansen's interest
in, 117, 122

Arctic geography, contributions to, by
Norwegian seamen, 263 ; area within
which our knowledge is increased,
263 ; class to whom we are most
indebted, 263 ; scarcity of whales
and seals the principal factor that
occasioned these discoveries, 263,
264 ; the explorers and their dis-
coveries and adventures, 264-276

Arctic Ocean, the, 226, 227

Arendal, 49

Arstal, Aksel, on Arctic expeditions
from the earliest times, 224-262

Artot, Madame, Mrs. Nansen's musical
instructor, 220

Asia, its circumnavigation, 135 ; and
the glacial theory, 145, 147, 148, 152,
153, 156

Astrup, E., his explorations, 124, 127,
205, 240 ; his death, 252

Atanekerdluk, 354

Atlantic, the, and the glacial theory,
143, 145, 146; its dividing hne,
227

Atuagagdliutit, Greenland newspaper,
on Nansen, 303

Augpadlartok Glacier, 129

Aulaitsivik Fiord, 133

Aurland, 92

Austmannadal, 194

Australia, the oases of, 249

Australian-Swedish Antarctic expedi-
tion, 165

Austria- Hungary and the zoological
station at Naples, 110; its polar
expeditions, 234, 254, 264, 274

Azores, 227

Azov Sea, 147

Bauen and tlie /.oological station at
Naples, 110

Baer, Von, explorer, 152, 267
Baf&n,the explorer, 230-232, 237, 239,

245, 247 n.
Baffin Bay, 231, 240, 246
Baffin Land, 239
Baldino Lake, 328
Balkeby boys, Nansen's fight with,

29
Balles, Pastor, 197
Baltic, the, and the glacial theory, 143,

149
Balto, Samuel Johannesen. 172, 194,

195
Baner, General, share in the Thirty

Years' War, 8
Banks Land, 245
Barents, William, the explorer, 233,

234, 236, 237, 252, 268, 270, 274
Barents Island, 266
Bai'row, the geographer, on the

American route to the Polar regions,

238
Bavaria and the zoological station at

Naples, 110
Bear Cape, 336, 341
Bear-hunting, 61-70
Bear Island, 4, 5, 227, 256, 266, 271,

352
Beard, and the myzostonia, 113
Beaumont, Lieutenant, 247
Belgium and the zoological station

at Naples, 110 ; and the glacial

theory, 144
Bennett Island, 260, 349, 354
Bennett, James Gordon, 258
Berezoff, 327
Bergen, connection of the Nansens

with, 14, 47 ; its public buildings

and places, 77, 78 ; Bergen, Nansen's

scheme regarding a zoological station

for, 110, 111
Bergen Museum, Nansen Curator of,

20, 74, 80, 83, 114, 116, 119, 120 ;

Danielssen's work there, 74-78
Berggren, Dr., his exploration in

Greenland, 132, 133
Bering, the explorer, 236, 237, 257
Bering Straits. 232, 239, 244, 245,

256-259, 260 7z., 277, 278
Berlin and the glacial theory, 143, 149
Berlin Academy and the zoological

station at Naples, 103, 104, 110
Berlin Geographical Society, Nansen's

lecture before, 295
Bernstorff' s Fiord, 185
Biarmeland, 228

INDEX

389

Bierkan, Captain Christian, 273

Binzers, Dr., 197

Biological stations in Norway, 110,

111
Bi5rnson, director of the Bergen

theatre, 78 n. ; qaoted, 82, 87, 288
Bjorling expedition, 232
Bistrups, Herr, 197
Blaamanden, 169
Black Forest, the, and the glacial

theory, 144
Black Sea, 147
Blackley, Rev. W. L., his translation

of Tegner's Fridtiofs Saga quoted,

87
Bladder-nose seals, 56 n.
Blessing, Dr., of the Fram, 374, 376
Bloomington, University of, 99
Blosseville Coast, 275
Bogstad, 42

Booth, a patron of Arctic explora-
tion, 261
Boothia Peninsula, 241, 243
' Borealia,' described, 4
Borgarfiord, 123
Borgersen, the wood carver, 295
Borneo, 124
Brainard, Sergeant, 251
Breidafiord, 123

Bremen Geographical Society, 271
BriestSlen, 90, 91
British America, Cabot's conception

of, 1^39
Brogger, Professor, his account of

Nansen, 161 ; his conti'ibution ' On

board the Fram; 358-386
' Brother John's Glacier,' 131
Brown, his exploration in Greenland,

132, 135
Brunchorst, Dr., and the cultivation of

biological study in Norway, 111
Buar Glacier, 128
Bull, Ole, his connection with the

Bergen theatre, 78 n.
Bylot, the explorer, 231, 232, 247 n.

Cabot, John, 230, 231, 239

Cabot, Sebastian, 230

Cajal, Ramon y, his biological investi-
gation, 118

Calstenius, his fate, 232

Cambridge University and the zoologi-
cal station at Naples, 110

Canada and the glacial theorj^ 144

Cape Bille, 184

Cape Bismarck, 127

Cape Blanco, 239

Cape Cheliuskin, 255, 354

Cape Dan, 170, 178, 183

Capo Farewell. 124, 126, 129, 141, 167,
277

Crpe Fligely, 254

Cape Joseph Henry, 248, 249

Cape Leigh-Smith, 266

Cape Mohn, 266, 270

Cape Nassau, 268

Cape Posilippo, 101

Cape Sheridan, 247

Cape Taimyr, 274

Cape Thordsen, 273

Cape Tordenskiold, 271

Cape York, 259 n.

Capella, sealer, 57, 58

Cap Nord, sealer, 58

Capri, 101, 107

Carey, his interest in Arctic explora-
tion, 261

Carey Islands, 231

Carlsen, Captain EUing, 264-266, 267,
270, 271

Carpathians, the, and the glacial
theory, 144, 146, 154, 155

Caspari, Theodor, his description of
Normarken, 37

Caspian Sea, 147

Castel deir Ovo, Naples, 100

Caucasus and the glacial theory, 144

Chamberlin, his theory regarding the
North American glaciers, 144

Chancellor, the explorer, 228

Chaptagaitar, 345

Chehuskin, the explorer, 237, 257

Choila Pass, 327

Christian IV. King, and Hans Nan-
sen, 2

Christian V. (King of Denmark) and
Count Jarlsberg, 8

Christiania, particulars concerning,
and the Nansens' connection with,
8, 15, 16, 22, 29, 30, 36, 37, 74, 80,
111, 124, 165, 169, 178, 200

Christiania Fiord, 199

Christiania Scientific Society, 292

Christiania University, 18, 120, 278

Christiansen, the Eskimo, and Lock-
wood's discovery, 251

Christiansen, of the Fram, 363, 366,
384

Christiansand, 178

Christianshaab, 189

Christie, President V. F. K., 14

190

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Christopliersen, 0., Nansen's secre-
tary, 328-330
Cleve, Professor, 279
Colberger Heide, 187
CoUett, Professor, 49, 99
CoUinson, explorer, 257
Columbus, and the rise of British

commerce, 230, 231
Com2}endiu'm Cosmographicum, aim

and scope of the work, 2-6
Cook, James, the explorer, 232, 239,

258
Copenhagen, connection of the Nansen

famUy with, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 15, 169,

178, 198, 199
Coppermine River, 241
Cordillera glacier, 144, 145
Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Naples, 108
Cortereal brothers, Arctic explorers,

their fate, 236
Cross Islands, 271
Crown Prince Rudolph's Land, 254
Crozier, Captain J. R. M., relic of, 242
Cunningham, G. P., on the Myxine

glutinosa, 119

Dagblad, quoted, 167, 168

Dalager, Lars, his explorations in Green-
land, 131

Danes in the Arctic regions, 5, 124,
126, 127, 155

Danielssen, Dr., chief of the Bergen
Museum, his life, work, and charac-
teristics, 74-78, 98, 110

Danish Islands and the glacial theory,
155

Dannebrog, Order of, conferred on
Nansen, 292

Davis, the explorer. 227, 238

Davis Strait, 240, 246, 277, 281

Delbruck, Dr., and the zoological sta-
tion at Naples, 103

De Long, Lieut. G. W., his career and
fate, 259, 260, 277, 284

De Long group of islands, 260

Delphin, the, Guldberg and Nansen's
researches, 120

Deluge, the, of the Bible, 141, 350,
351

Denmark, connection of Nansen's
ancestors with, 7, 8, 10 ; Norway a
possession ot, 8 ; erratic blocks in,
140 ; and the glacial theory, 143

Denmark Htrait, 56 n., 279

Deschneff, explorer, 257

Dickson, Baron Oscar, his interest in

Arctic exploration, 135, 261
Dietrichson, N. G., 48
Dietrichson, Lieut. Oluf Christian, 172,

177, 181, 189, 195, 203, 221
Diggs, Dudley, interest of, in Arctic

exploration, 261
Dijmphna, steamship, 255, 258
Disco Bay, 170
Discovery, the, 231
Discovery, the (second of the name),

247, 283
Discovery Harbour, 250
Disko Island, 259 n.
Djergili, a member of Baron von Toll's

New Siberia expedition, 334-337,

339, 342, 343, 346, 348-351, 357
Dohrn, Dr. Anton, the creator of the

zoological station at Naples, 101-

105, 107, 110, 111
Dorma, Captain, 270
Drake, Francis, and British commerce,

230, 231
Drobak, its biological station. 111
Du Bois-Reymond, and the zoological

station at Naples, 103, 104
Dutch whalers at Spitzbergen, 5

East Greenland, 275

Eastern Siberia, 277, 278

Edge, Thomas, 265

Edge Island, 266

Edison and the lighting of the Jean-
nette, 259

Edlund, Professor, and the exploration
of Greenland, 135

Egede, Hans, on the Eskimo, 305

Egersund, 12, 15, 17

Eggedal, 319, 321

Ehrlich, Professor, his process of
colouring the nerve elements, 117

Eidfiord, 169

Ekrol, Captain Martin, 275

Elizabeth, Queen, meta incognita, 238,
239

Ellesmere Land, and the glacial theory,
145

Engeland, 42

England, at war with Norway, 13 ; her
interest in and indebtedness to
Arctic exploration and explorers,
126, 228, 230, 231, 233, 255, 257,
261 ; erratic blocks in, 140 ; and the
glacial theory, 143, 144, 146, 148,
149

INDEX

391

English whalers at Spitzbergen, 5

Ensomhed (Lonely Island), 274, 346

Erebus, the frigate, 240

Eric the Eed, 123, 124

Erikssen, Leif, 226

Erratic blocks, and gravel strata, pre-
valence of, in Scandinavia and North
Europe, 139-141

Erzgebirge and the glacial theory, 144,
155

Eskimos, Nansen and the, 45, 177, 197,
198, 302-308; of Greenland, 128;
at Cape Bille and Singiartuarfik,
184, 185 ; their account of Franklin's
fate, 241-243 ; with the Jeannette
expedition, 259 ; of Alaska, 278 ;
throwing-stick, 278

Euphrates, the, and the Flood, 141

Europe, and the glacial theory, 125,
147-149, 150-152, 154-156, 158,
205

Eyafialla-jokel, its glaciers, 58

Fabritius, Mr,, and Nansen, 26, 27

Faroe Islands, 145, 227

Finland, 140, 142

Fish Eiver, 243

Fiskernses, 134

Flensborg, birthplace of Hans Nansen,
1

Flink (Nansen's dog), 81

Folgefonn glacier, 128

Fox, steamer, 196, 197, 284

Fram, the, 238, 247, 258, 293 ; launch-
ing of, 309-313, 323 ; her design and
dimensions, 313-314 ; ready to start,
322; her journey, 328, 329; life on
board, by W. C. Brogger, 358 ; the
pilot, 358 ; Nansen's studio, 358,
359 ; the sunset, 359, 360 ; view
from its deck, 360 ; cleaning opera-
tions, 361 ; the first mate, 361, 362 ;
stories on deck, 363 ; the crew, 363-
371 ; the cooking apparatus and
provisions, 371, 372 ; the ' saloon '
and its furniture, 373-375 ; supper,
376, 377 ; Nansen's cabin, 377-380 ;
its library, 379 ; conversations with
Nansen, and confidence of his crew,
380-385 ; adieu and God-speed, 385,
386

France in the Great Ice Age, 146

Franklin, Capt. Sir John, his ill-fated
expedition, 231, 236, 238, 240-244,
257, 258, 261

Franklin, Lady, her interest in Arctic

exploration, 261
Franz -Josef Land, 225, 254, 255, 260,

269, 274, 275, 282, 353, 356
Frederiksdal, 182
Frederikshaab, 131, 134
' Frederikshaab Isblink,' 134
Frederiksten, 8
Friszland, 4, 5
Frobisher brothers, Arctic explorers,

their fate, 236, 238
Froen, see Great Froen
Frogner river, 23, 24
Frogner Sajter, 37, 38, 221
Fusari, Dr., 100, 116
Fyllingen, hare-hunting at, 34

Gamel, Mr. Augu&tin, interest in
Nansen and Arctic exploration, 168,
197, 261

Garde, Lieut., the explorer, 126, 198

Geer, G. de, his theory regarding the
ice-shed of Scandinavia, 206 n.

Gefion, the myth of, 140

Geikie, Professor, his work on The
Great Ice Age, 143

Genoa, her decline as a maritime power,
231

Geologists and glacier deposits, 141,
142

Germania-Harisa expedition, 239

Germany and its erratic blocks, 139,
140 ; and the zoological station at
Nappies, 103, 104, 110

Gjendin, 47

Gjertsen, of the Fram, 361, 363, 368,
370, 375, 384

Glaciers of Greenland and Norway
compared, 128, 129 ; theory regard-
ing ' calving ' of, 129

Gobi, Desert of, 124, 147

Godthaab, 190, 195-197, 202

Godthaab (Nansen's home), 211, 212,
214, 294, 295

Godthaabsfiord, 193

Golgi, Professor, his method of staining
the nerve fibres, 100, 115, 116, 117

Goodsir, Surgeon H. D. S., relic of,
242

Goose Land, 272

Graff, and the myzostoma, 112

Grant's Land, 247, 250

Great Fish Eiver, 241, 242, 243, 244

Great Froen, the home of the Nan-
sens, 22-27, 36, 42, 44, 200, 293

392

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEX

Great Ice Age, Greenland and, 123,
125 ; tlie emigration of erratic
blocks and gravel strata, 139, 140 ;
tradition and the jphenomena, 140 ;
scientific theories and demonstra-
tions concerning glacier deposits
and land-ice in Northern Europe,
141-144 ; in North America, 144,
145 ; in Northern Asia, 145 ; theory
regarding the Atlantic Ocean, 145 ;
Northern Eurojje, North America
and Central Eui'ope, 145-148 ;
animals and jplants of this Age, 146,
147 ; the inter-glacial period, 148,
149 ; the second glaciation, 149,
150 ; names of the two glacial
epochs, 160 ; the cause of the
spreading and shrinking of land-ice,
150; animal, vegetable, and other
evidence confirming the glacial
theorj', 150-157 ; man's survival of
the Great Ice Age and his future,
157, 158 ; Nansen's Greenland ex-
pedition and the study of the subject,
205, 209

Great Island, 260

Great Liakhoff Island, 153, 334, 345,
350

Great Salt Lake, 148

Greely, Lieut., his expedition, 126, 250,
251, 260 11.

Greenland, Hans Nansen's description
of, 4-6 ; Nansen's first experiences
in, 60 ; the exploration of, 72, 73,
79, 83, 98, 99, 109, 110, 117, 120;
Eed Eric and, 123 ; Scandinavian
explorations of, 124 ; its size and
population, 124; limited knowledge
of the country, 125 ; its inland ice,
125, 142, 146 ; scientific interest in,
125 ; Danish and other exj)lorations
of, 126, 127 ; character of its coast,
127 ; its inhabitants, 128 ; its
mountains and glaciers, 128, 129 ;
atmosphere, 129 ; probable extent of
its ice field, 129, 130 ; supei'stition of
its people concerning the inland ice,
130; expeditions into, 131-138 ; its
iceberg deposits, 141 ; the musk-
ox in, 154 ; effect of the glacial epoch
on, 156 ; Nansen's expedition across,
his preparations, 159 ; his consulta-
tion with Nordenskiold, 160-165 ;
ways and mfaiis, 165 168 ; his
plans, 169 ; colleagues, 178 ; outfit,
173 176; the journey across, 178-

200 ; the scientific significance of
the expedition, 201-206 ; ice-shed,
206; its 'nunataks,' 206; absence
of dust and life from the in-
terior, 207 ; probable irregularity
of its substratum, 207 ; its explored
coast line and polar tongue, 239 ; its
importance from an explorer's point
of view, 252 ; seal-hunters of its
coast, 276 ; the polar current and,
277-279; the Eoyal Geographical
Society of London and other appre-
ciations of Nansen's expedition, 277-
279, 283, 286, 288, 291, 296

Grieg, Dr. Lorentz, his interest in
Nansen, 85-87, 160-165, 168, 169

Griffenfeld, Peter, 10

Griffenfeld, the barony of, 8

Griffenfeldt's Island, 184

Grinnell, his interest in Arctic explora-
tion, 261

Grinnell Land, 145, 154, 351, 354

Grondal Lake and its Sseter, 93, 95

Groth, Herr, and the exploration of
Greenland, 133

Gudbrandsgaren, 91, 92

Gulf of Bothnia, 143

Guldberg, Professor Gustav, 111, 120

Guldal, 10

Gudvangen, 89

Gustavus Adol]3hus, his defeat, 139

Gyldenlove, U. F., former owner of
Jarlsberg, 8

Gyldenlove's Fiord, 187

Haagensen, the pilot, 358

Haalogalsending, Ottar, his voyage to
Biarmeland, 228

Haarfager, 271

Habakuk, a Greenlander, and the ex-
ploration of Greenland, 133

' Hag,' the. See Myxine.

Hagerup, Miss Augusta, 16

Hail, the explorer, 236, 244, 246

Hall Basin, 247

Hallingskei, 91, 93, 96

Hamburg, 110, 149, 246

Hammer, R. E. I., and the exploration
of Greenland, 126

Hammerfest, 283

Hammero, its peaks, 381

Hansa expedition, 127, 246, 281

Hansen, Scott, chief mate of the Fram,
361, 362, 374, 370, 378

Hansteen, artist, 374

INDEX

393

Hardanger glacier, 96

Hartz Mountains and the glacial

theory. 144
Hayes, J. J., 131, 132, 245, 246
Hecla, sealer, 275
Heer, geologist, 354
Hegdehaugen, 30
Hekla, sealer, 58
Helland, Professor Amund, 129, 156,

167, 168
Hendriksen, of the Fram, 363, 364, 365,

368, 375
Henrietta Island, 260
Herald Island, 258
Hertha, the, 382
Hesse and the zoological station at

Naples, 110
Heuglien, Captain, 271
Himalayas, dnring the Ice Age, 147
Hinlopen Strait, 266, 270, 271
Hogevarde, 319
Holdt, Pastor, 80 n.
Holland and the zoological station at

Naples, 110 ; erratic blocks in, 140 ;

and the glacial theorjs 143
Holm, G. F., 126
Holm's 'woman-boat' expedition, 127,

129
Holstenborg, 127
Hooker, Sir Joseph D., 285
Hovgaard, Lieut. A., his expedition,

255
Hudson, the explorer, 228, 236, 237,

240
Hudson's Bay, 239 ; its fur-trade, 232
Hudson's Bay Company and tlie

Franklin expedition, 241, 242
Hudson's Strait, 239, 240
Humboldt Glacier, 128, 146
Hungary in the Great Ice Age, 146
Huseby Hill, 27, 28, 88
Hvidbioriien, the steamer, 198

Ibsen and his works, 19, 68, 78 n., 86-
88, 234 n., 237 n.

Icebergs, the calving of, 141

Ice Fiord, 271, 273, 275

Ice floes, description of, 53

Iceland, 5, its lava caves and hot
springs, 59 ; early emigration from
to Greenland, 123 ; and the glacial
theory, 145 ; and the great ice limit,
227

Iceland Company, Hans Nansen's
command under, 2

Idrcetsblad (Journal of Athletics), 88

Illinois in the Great Ice Age, 144

Independence Bay, 127, 247

India, its ocean route, 228

Indiana, offer froixt, to Nansen, 99

Ingerkajarfik, 184

Inglefield, Captain Sir E., 245, 284,
285

Institute of France, and Nansen, 293

Inugsuarmiutfiord, 184

Investigator, 244, 245

Iowa period (glacial epoch), 150 n.

Ireland and the glacial theory-, 143,
146

Irkutsk, 331, 353

Isaksen, Captain N. L., 270, 273, 275

Isothermal line, the, 227

Italy, Count Jarlsberg's adventures in,
8 ; and the zoological station at
110 ; Nansen's visit to, 115 ; climate
of, in the Ice Age, 147 ; the climate
of Northern, 156

Ivigtut, 196

Jacobsen, Captain M. of the Jason,
178

Jacobsen, of the Fram, 363, 364

Jsederen, 12

Jaeger, Nansen a disciple of, 47

Jakobshavn, 132

Jakobshavn glacier, 128, 129

Ja7i Mayen, the brig, 264, 265

Jan Mayen Island, 4, 52, 274

Japan, the passage to, 232, 237 ; fossil
flora of, 354

Jarlsberg, Count. See "Wedel, Gustav
Wilhelm von

Jarlsberg, the second Count, his military
adventures, 8

Jason, the sealer, 178, 179, 201

Jeannette, the, her fate, 255, 256, 258-
269, 277-279, 282, 284, 331

Jeannette Island, 260

Jensen, Lieut. J. A. D., and the ex-
ploration of Greenland, 126, 133-
135

Jensen, Olaf, curator of Bergen Mu-
seum, 74

Jensen's Nimatak, 134

Joachim Friele Gold Medal, 100

Johannesen, Captain Edward Holm,
268, 269, 270, 274

Johannesen, Captain H. C, 270

Johansen, Lieut, and stoker of the
Fram, 369, 870, 376

194

LIFE OF FKIDTIOF NANSEN

Johnstrup, Professor, on the explora-
tion of Greenland, 126

Johnsen, Captain, 271

Jones, his interest in Arctic explora-
tion, 261

Jones Soimd, 231

Jordan, Professor David Starr, his
negotiations with Nansen, 99

Jotmiheim, 47, 48, 87, 88

Juell, the Fram's steward, 3(58-371,
375, 380

Juniata, the, 259 n.

Junker, receives Vega medal, 290

Jura, and the glacial theory, 144

Justedal glacier, 128

Jutland, Norwegian blocks in, 140

Kaardal, 94

Kama river, and the glacial theory,
144

Kamschatka, 354

Kane, explorer, 235, 236, 245

Kane Basin, 126, 128, 235, 236, 246,
284

Kangek, 197, 302

Kangerdlugsuak, 185

Kansas period (glacial epoch), 150 n.

Kara Sea (the ice-vault of Europe), 79,
255, 267-271, 276, 325, 346

Karataikha, 327

Karl Gustav, King of Sweden, his in-
vasion of Zealand and relations with
Hans Nansen, 6, 7

Karl Ritter medal conferred on Nan-
sen, 291

Karlsevne, Torfin, 226

Kasan, 147

Katnosa, 44

Kekertarsiiak, 182

Kelch, Nikolai, 331, 332, 846

Kellet, explorer, 258

Kennedy Channel, exploration of, 126

Kennedy Channel, 245

Khabarova, sledge-dog station, 325,
326, 328-330, 333

Khatanga Bay, 325

Kief (Russia) and the glacial theory,
144

Kiel, the Peace of, 12

Kielland, Kitty, 374

King Charles Land, 265, 266, 271

King Oscar's Haven, 183

King Oscar's Land, 254

' King Oscar 11. ' Medal, 330

King William's Land, 242, 243, 244

KioUefiord, 79

Knub, Ola, Nansen's fishing expedition

with, 42
Knudsen, Captain R., 275
Koch, Andrea, 3
Kola, 1, 2

Koldewey expedition, 127
Kongespeil, quoted, 130
Kongsberg, 169, 321
Koren, Justice, colleague of Judge

Nansen, 13
Kornerup, A., and the exploration of

Greenland, 126, 133
Kotelnoi, 332, 334, 336, 337, 341, 342,

351
Krefting, captain of the sealer Viking,

49, 58, 60 ; characteristics of, 70
Kristian Frederik, Prince, 12
Kristianfjeld, 8
Kristianshaab, 133, 136
Kroderen, 317

Krokskogen, hare-hunting at, 45
Kryloff, A., his pamphlet To Meet

Nansen, 327
Kryokonite not of cosmic origin, 207 n.
Kudtlek Island, 180
Kukenthal, Dr., 271
Kuwantz, 2
Kuschnarew letter on Nansen's North

Pole expedition, 214
Kvik, the Greenland dog, 367

Labrador, 227, 240, 246

Labrador, the, 326

Laerdal, 89, 90

Lake Bonneville, 148

Lake Lahontan, 148

Lake Tchad, 147

La Mergellina, Naples, 100

Lammers, at Nansen's dinner party,
314

Landegode, 358

Langli Lake, 43, 44

Larsen, Miss Martha, formerly house-
keeper at Great Froen, 200, 293,
294 ; Nansen's letter to, 294

Lasault, Von, on dust, 207 n.

Laurentian Glacier, extent of, 144,
145

Laurvik, 309

Lecke, Professor, on Nansen, 162

Leierdahl, Miss, wife of Ancher An-
thony Nansen, 10

Leigh-Smith, Mr. Benjamin, 269, 270

Leipzic, 139

INDEX

395

Letnberg (Galicia) and the glacial

theory, 144
Lemva. 327
Lena River, 259, 260, 270, 325, 332,

352, 355
Lena, steamship, 270
Lessing, his bust of Nansen, 287, 299
Leuckart, F. S., on the laiyzostonia,

112
Leydig and the nervous system, 116
Liakhoff Island, 332, 336
Lindstrom, Professor Nordenskiold's

assistant, 163
Little Juniata, the, 259 n
Little Karmakula, 273
Little Liakhoflf Island, 332-334 ; 336,

342, 343
Lo-Bianco, Salvatore, of the zoolo-
gical station at Naples, 106
Lockwood, Lieut., the Arctic explorer,

126, 127, 225, 251, 253, 283
Lockwood Island, 251
Lodingen, 362
Lofoten-Wall, 360, 363
Long, T., 258
Lorenzen on dust, 207 n.
Loven, Sven, and the myzostoma, 112
Lower Obi, 327

Lungegaard Hospital, 74, 77, 78
Liitzen, ' the Swedish Stone ' at, 139,

140

McClintock, Sir Leopold, the ex-
plorer, 243, 245, 257, 284, 285,
286

McClure the discoverer of the North-
West Passage, 232, 241, 244, 245

Mack, F., 270

Mack, Captain T. B., 269

Mackenzie, explorer, 237

Mackenzie River, 256

Madagascar, 124

Magellan, his circumnavigation of the
world, 230

Maigaard, Christian, and the explora-
tion of Greenland, 137, 160

Maloje Simovje, 336, 343

Markham, Sir Clements, 292

Marsh, Professor, Nansen's negotia-
tions with, 83

MassiHa, the city of, 226

Matotchkin strait, 267, 268

Maxim, a member of Baron von Toll's
New Siberian expedition, 335-337,
339, 346

Meddelelser om Gronland, 126

Mediterranean, the, in the Ice Age,
147

Melchior, M. G., 199

Melville Bay, 126

Melville Island, 244, 245

Melville Sound and Bay, 240

Metschnikoff and the myzostoma, 112

Micha Stan (Nansen depot), 336,
343

Moe, Jorgen, the poet, 20

Mogens Heinesens Fiord, 184

Mogstad, of the Fra7n, 363, 374, 384

Mohn, Professor H., 61, 203, 204,
362 ; on the contribution of Norwe-
gian seamen to Arctic geography,
263-276

MoUer, Vendelia Christina Louisa,
second wife of Judge Nansen, 15,
16

MoUer Bay, 273

Morgenhlad, the, 180

Morier, explorer, 326, 327

Morocco, the Spanish invasion of, 8

Morton, in Kane's Sound, 245, 246

Mosken^s Island, 358, 360

Mossel Bay, 273

Mount Julia, 249

Munster, the Prince-Bishop of, his
share in the Scanian War, 8

Munthe, Gerhard, 314, 373, 375

Murray, his theories concerning the
South Pole, 143, 145

Muski, 327, 333

Myrstolen, 91, 92

Myxine, 115-119, 162, 169

Myzostoma, 100, 112-114

N^RODAL, its avalanches, 89

Nserosimd, 361, 378

Nansen, Alexander, Nansen's brother,
33, 47, 48, 293

Nansen, Ancher Anthony, 10

Nansen, Baldur Fridtiof (Nansen's
father), 17, 18-20, 83, 84, 97, 98

Nansen, Evert, father of Hans, 1 n.

Nansen, Fridtiof, ancestry : paternal,
1-7, 9-16 ; maternal, 8 ; his lucky
star, 17, 22, 50 ; his father ; 17-20 ;
mother, 20-22; birth, 22 ; scene , of
his early training and narrative of
his childish experiences, 22-26 ; his
first ice medal, 25 ; his first snow-
shoes and great leap, 26-28 ; boys,
29 ; his brown studies, 29, 30 ;

396

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

Spartan-like character of his up-
bringing, 29, 30, 34-36 ; purchases
at the Christiania fair, 29, 30 ;
3'outhful manner and cliaracteris-
tics: school fight with Karl, 28,
with the Balkeby boys, 29 ; his
spirit of questioning, 30 ; takes
a sewing-machine to pieces, 31 ;
progress at school, 31, 32 ; his
pyrotechnic experiment, 32, 33 ; his
tender passion and chivalry, 33 ;
his first drawings and example of
his early literary style, 34 ; his
word picture of home life at Christ-
mas, 35, 36 ; his description of visits
to Sorkedal and Nordmarken, 41-44 ;
his fishing expeditions, hare-hunt-
ing excursions and snow-shoeing
exploits there, 44-47 ; experiences
on the Svartdal Peak, 47 ; his matri-
culation and choice of a profession,
48-50 ; voyage in the Viking in the
Polar Sea, 49, 50 ; extracts from his
diary describing his first experiences
in seal-hunting, 51-60 ; and bear-
hunting, 61-70 ; his relations with
the captain and crew of the Viking,
70, 71 ; a shipmate's estimate of
Nansen, 71, 72 ; influence of the
voyage on his future, 72, 73 ; curator
of Bergen Museum, 74 ; relations
with Dr. Danielssen, 77-80; Nan-
sen's work at the museum, 80, 81 ;
his resolve to cross Greenland, 82 ;
offer from x\merica, 83 ; correspon-
dence with his father, 83-85 ; Dr.
Grieg's estimate of Nansen's charac-
ter, 85-87 ; his interest in litera-
ture, 86, 87 ; his ideas of Paradise,
87 ; description of the Jotunheim,
87, 88 ; love of snow-shoeing, 88 ;
exploits in the mountains, 89, 90 ;
his successful attack on Vosseskavlen
and his experiences en route, 91-97 ;
letters to his father on the exploit
and on thrift, 97, 98 ; the American
and Greenland schemes, 98, 99 ; his
studies of the nervous system in
Pavia and Naples, 100, 105 ; in-
fluence of his intercourse with Dr.
Dohrn, and description of the
zoological station at Naples, 105-
107 ; contemporary accounts of his
life in Naples, 107-109 ; a ' guest '
only at the zoological station, 110 ;
his share in establishing biological

study in Norway, 110, 111 ; Nansen
as a biologist : his researches and
discoveries in the science, 112-122 ;
experiences of the temperature of
Greenland, 131 ; and the Norden-
skiold expedition, 136 ; scientific im-
portance of his Arctic expedition,.
158 ; annoimces to Dr. Grieg his
intention of cro-sing Greenland,
159, 160; account of his visit to
Stockholm to consult Nordenskiold,
160-165 ; his application to the
Collegium Academicum for funds
refused, 166, 167 ; funds provided
by Mr. Gamel, 168; his busy fife
in 1888, 169 ; his lectures on Myxine
and the Nerve Elements, 169 ;
plans for Greenland expedition,.
169-171 ; his qualifications for
the task, 171, 172 ; his colleagues,
172 ; equipment, 173-176 ; in-
debtedness to Dr. Eink, 176-177 ;
start via Scotland and Iceland,
178 ; first glimpse of Greenland,.
178 ; takes to the boats, 179, 180 ;
life on the ice floe, 180-182 ; land
at Kekertarsuak and experiences
round the coast, 182-187 ; prepara-
tions for ascending the inland ice,
187, 188 ; the ascent, 188-191 ; the
down gradient, 181-192 ; sledge-
sailing, 192, 193 ; reaches land, 193,.
194 ; the canvas boat, 194 ; the
victory, 195, 196 ; life at Godthaab,
196-198 ; reception in Norway, 198-
200 ; the scientific outcome of the
exploit : scanty character of zoologi-
cal and botanical information, 201-
203 ; the geographical, geological,
and meteorological results, 203-206 ;
the configuration of Greenland, 206-
209 ; character of the Greenland and
Polar expeditions, 238 ; lecture to
the Norwegian Geographical Society
on a new polar expedition, 277 ; his
theory regarding the polar current,
277-279 ; his plan explained, 279-
282 ; probable time, 282 ; the
scientific value of the expedition,
282, 283 ; expotuids his plan to the
Eoyal Geographical Society in
London before Arctic experts, 283,
284 ; their criticisms of liis scheme,
284-286 ; Nansen's reply, 28(5 ; a
stiidy of his character, 287-289;
becomes curator of the Zootomic

INDEX

397

Museum, 289; marriage and journeys
to London, Paris, and Stockholm,
289 ; receives Vega and other medals,
and Orders, 290-292 ; honours con-
ferred by scientific societies and
congratulations from public men,
292, 293 ; visit and letter to Miss
Larsen, 293, 294 ; married ex-
periences, life in a ' dog-hutch,' and
description of his new house, 264,
295 ; his continental lecturing tour,
295 ; his lecture in Berlin, and the
impression made there, 295-298 ;
as a man of letters ; his First
Crossing of Greenland, 298-302 ;
extracts from his diary on life among
the Eskimo, 302 ; the Greenlanders'
sketch of Nansen, 303 ; his Eskimo
Life, his characteristic views on
Christianitj'- and civilisation, 304,
305 ; his attraction towards the
primitive forms of life, 306-303 ; his
preparations, plans, and lectures in
England on the forthcoming polar
expedition, 308, 309 ; launching of
the Fram, 309-314; Nansen as an
artist, 314 ; account of a luncheon
party at Nansen's house, 314-321 ;
his account of the climb of Norefjekl
with Mrs. Nansen, 317-321 ; pre-
piring for the great departiu'e, 321,
322 ; the Storthing and the expe-
dition, 323 ; goodbye to wife and
child, 323 ; the start, 324 ; his com-
munications with Baron von Toll
concerning sledge-dogs, 325 ; meets
Trontheim at Khabarova, 329 ;
Baron von Toll's services on his
behalf, 325-347 ; life on board his
ship, 358-386

Nansen, Hans, his life and works, 1-7,
9

Nansen, Hans Leierdahl (Judge), pub-
lic life and characteristics of, 10-15

Nansen, Hans, the younger, 10

Nansen, Michael, and his daughter, 9,
10

Naples, Nansen's visit to, 99, 100; the
zoological station at, 100-111 ; the
Corso of the Neapolitans, 100, 101 ;
its Park and the 'Villa Nazionale,'
101 ; its scenerv and surroundings,
107, 108

Nares, Sir George, the explorer, 126,
237, 249, 250, 283-286

Nathorst, geologist, 354

Naturen, quoted, 105-107, 110, 169

Nehring, his geological investigations,
152

Nervous system, examinations into its
problems, 114-118, 101, 169

Nesodland, 295

Nedrevaag, Captain A. O., 269

Newcastle, Geographical Congress at,
289

Newfoundland, 141, 227, 250; its
fisheries, 232

New Guinea, 124

New Herrnhut, 195

New Siberia and the North Pole ;
Djergili's theories, 348-351 ; geolo-
gical history of these regions, 351 ;
fossil flora, 354; the geological
structure of the Arctic regions, 855-
357

New Siberia Islands, 79, 145, 152,
153, 250, 277-279, 285, 325, 331, 332,
334, 347

New York, the glacial theory regarding,
144, 146

Nielsen, Yngvar, on Judge Nansen's
efforts on behalf of reform, 14

Nilsen, Captain, 271

Nordenskiold, Baron A. E., his explora-
tions, scientific theories and interest
in Nansen, 82, 132, 133,135-137, 160,
163-165, 170, 178, 182, 202, 204, 205,
207, 208 n., 231, 232, 237, 238, 252,
253, 255, 258, 268, 269, 270, 273-275,
290, 293, 284, 384

Nordenskiold, G., 165

Nordland, its mountains, 128

Nordland, schooner, 268

Nordmark, 58

Nordmarken, 37-47, 210

Norefjeld, 48, 317-321

North America, the glacial theory re-
garding, 144, 145, 146

North American Archipelago, 351

North Cape, 5, 227, 228, 256, 257

North-East Island, 266, 270

Northern Europe, and the emigration
of boulders and gravel strata, 140,
141 ; theories regarding, 142, 143 ;
land-ice over, 143, 144, 146

Northern Lights, Hans Nansen's de-
scription of, 1

North Germany, and the glacial theory,
143

North Pole, scientific importance of
its exploration and other particulars
concerning, 4, 6, 79, 120, 121, 158,

398

LIFE OF FRIDTIOF NANSEN

168, 177, 204, 211,221,222,246,247,
250, 277-286

North Sea, 52, 143, 149, 156, 226

Norway, Judge Nansen's share in her
hostihties against Sweden, 10-13 ;
its settlement of Greenland, 4 ; its
fortifications, 8 ; connection of Nan-
sen's ancestors with, 10-16 ; Nansen
and the establishment of zoological
and biological stations in, 110, 111 ;
compared with Greenland, 124, 128 ;
erratic blocks, 139, 140 ; and glacier
deposits, 141, 142 ; influence of
glaciers on its scenery, 155 ; public
opinion and Nansen's proposed ex-
pedition across Greenland, 166, 168 ;
and the isothermal line, 227 ; its
temperate tongue, 289 ; and polar
exploration, 282, 283

Norwegian Arctic Expedition of 1877,
274

Norwegian Bank, Judge Nansen's
opposition to its removal, 14, 15

Norwegian Geographical Society,
Nansen's lecture before the, 277-283

Norwegian seamen, their geographical
investigations and discoveries, 263

Norwegians, their explorations of
Greenland, 124

Novaia. Semlia, the sealer, 55, 58

Nova Zembla, 4, 5, 135, 233, 234, 253-
255, 267-271, 273-276, 328, 351, 352

Numedal, 169, 321 .

Nunarsuak, 184

Obi river, 256, 326

Ohi, steamship, 326

Olberg, 318

Olenek, 326 ; dog depot at, 331, 332

Olenek river, 346, 351

Oluf, 67, 69, 70

Ommanney, Admiral, 284

Oskar, patron of polar exploration, 261

Ostiaks, their sledge-dogs, 326, 327

Otter, Captain von, 253

Otto Krag, his relations with Hans

Nansen, 7
Ovandje, a member of Baron von Toll's

New Siberia expedition, 334-337,

839, 342, 348
Oxford University and the zoological

station at Naples, 110

Pacific-Arctic Ocean, theory regarding.

353, 354
Palander, Lieut., 253, 290
Palhser, Mr. John, 267
Pandora, the (Jeannette) , 258, 284
Pantellaria, 149
Parr, Lieut., 248
Parry, Arctic explorer, 225, 245,

258
Pasteur, the elder Nansen on, 84,

85
Pavia, Nansen in, 100, 115
Pavy, Dr., his death, 251
Payer on Arctic explorations, 225, 284,

235, 239, 252, 254
Payer- Weyprecht expedition, 254
Peary, Eobert E., explorer, 124, 127,

137, 188, 160, 161, 205, 252, 254
Pedersdatter, Maren, maiden name of

Hans Nansen's mother, 1 n.
Petermann, the geographer, 288, 254,

261, 270
Petermann' s Land, 254
Petermann'' s Mittheilungen, 204, 275
Petersen, C, 131
Peterssen, Eilif, 314, 374
Petschora, its fur regions, 2
Petterson, of the Fram, 369, 382
Petterssen, Karl, his map, 271 n.
Pipervik, 322
Polar bears, Barents's experiences with,

233
Polar Ocean, 281
Polar Sea, 50, 51-73, 144, 151, 227,

232, 276
! Polaris, the, 246, 259 n.
Pomerania, Duke of, services of the

Wedels with, 8
Port Foulke, 131

Portuguese, their exploration of the
j ocean route to India, 228
I Prince Albert, the, 241
! Prince of Wales Strait, 244
Prove, the sealer, 273, 275
Prussia and the zoological station at

Naples, 110
Przewalski, presentation of the Vega
I medal to, 290
Ptarmigan -shooting at Norefjeld, 49
Puisortok glacier, 184
Pyrenees, the, and the glacial theory,

"144
Pytheas, the first Arctic explorer, 220

Paaes, Major Hans Enevold, 181

Quale, Captain P., 269

INDEX

399

Eae, Dr. John, explorer, 132, 284
Esekevik Bay, 309, 323
Rastorgujew, a member of Baron
von Toll's New Siberia expedition,
335
Ravna, Ola Nilsen, 172, 195
Betzius, Professor Gustaf, 163, 290,
309-312, 315, 316 ; on Nansen as a
biologist, 112-122

Eeuterskiold, Von, report from Baron
von Toll to, 327

Rhine valley, fossil remains found in
the, 151

Richards, Sir George, 285

Richthofen, Baron Ferdinand von, on
Nansen, 295-298

Rink, Dr., 124, 129, 176, 177, 278

Riesengebirge and the glacial theory,
144, 155

Robeson, the American Naval Secre-
tary, 259 n.

Robeson Channel, 126, 246-248, 250

Rolfsen, Nordahl, his works quoted,
41-44, 51 ; interviews Mrs. Nansen,
210-223

Ronnbak, Captain, 267

Ross, John, explorer, 225, 241, 245

Rossa, Anders, and the exploration of
Greenland, 136

Royal Danish Greenland Company,
137

Royal Geographical Societj' of London,
Nansen's lecture before, 283-286;
confers Victoria ixiedal on Nansen,
291

Royal Society, its efforts to explore
Greenland, 132

Russia, the Czar of, commissions Hans
Nansen to explore the White Sea,
2 ; her possessions in the Arctic
seas, 5 ; and the zoological station
at Naples, 110; Finnish rock in
Northern, 140 ; commercial relations
with England, 233 ; her enterprise
in Arctic exploration, 257 ; her
efforts to open a waterway through
the Kara Sea, 267

Russian Academy of Science, its geo-
logical expeditions, 152 ; and Baron
von Toll's expedition to the New
Siberia Islands, 325

Russian sealers in the Arctic regions,
255, 256

Russian steppes and the glacial theory,
143

Ryder, Lieut. G. H., 126, 129, 174

Sabine expedition, 127
Saghalien, 354
Sahara of the North, 124
Sahara Desert, 147, 204
St. Olaf Order, the Knight's cross con-
ferred on Nansen, 292
St. Petersburg, glacial theory regard-
ing, 149

Samoyede Peninsula, 268

Samoyedes, 5, 271, 327

Samson, schooner, 269

Sandungen, 44

Sandvik, 45

San Francisco, 239

Sannikoff, Jacob, 332

Sannikoff, Michael, 332. 334, 336, 343,.
345

Sannikoff Land, 145, 153, 349, 353

San Sebastiano, its vineyards and lava-
wastes, 107, 108

Sardlok, 197, 302

Sars, Professor, Mrs. and Miss Eva
(Mrs. F. Nansen), 33, 79, 99, 217,
219

Sauekilen, its evil reputation, 90

Saxony and the zoological station at
Naples, 110

Saxony, the ' Swedish Stone ' in, 140

Scandinavia and the zoological station
at Naples, 110 ; and the glacial
theory, 139-143, 146, 148, 149, 154,
156, 206 n., 207 ; the discoveries of
her sons, 228, 230

Scanian War, 8

Schiertz, artist, of Bergen, 314

Schileiko, a member of Baron von
Toll's New Siberia expedition, 335,
337, 339, 343 ; suffers from snow-
blindness, 341

Schmelck, the chemist, 175

Schmidt, Fr., explorer, 152

Schnitzerei-Teknih process, 113, 115>
116

Schubert, Nansen's interest in, 86

Schumann, Nansen's interest in, 86

Schwatka, his search for Franklin, 244

Scoresby, explorer, 127, 253 ; his chart,
274

Scotland and the glacial theory, 143

Sem (Norway), 8

Semper, and the myzostoma, 112

Sermilikfiord, 179, 180, 182

Sexe on the advance of the Buar
glacier, 128

Siberia, 145, 151-153, 245, 255, 257,
267, 274, 279

400

LIFE/ OF FRIDTIOF NANSEX

Siberian mammoth, 152

Siberian ' tundras,' 151

Sibiriakoff, A. M., 326, 331

Sicily, 149

Sigwardt, Dean, on tlie cliaracteristics
of Judge Nansen, 15

Singiartuarfik, 185

Sinding, Otto, the jDainter, 294, 314

Skai'psno, 160

Skraaven, 358, 360

Skredsvig, the artist, 314, 374, 375

Skudesnges, 197

Smith Sound, 126, 231, 245^247, 250,
255, 281

Smith, Tliomas, interest in Arctic ex-
ploration, 261

Snoilskv, Carl, the poet, quoted, 117

Snow-shoeing, 45, 46, 82, 88

Sogn, 91, 92, 94

Sophia, steamship, 135, 178, 182, 253

Sorensen, Major-General, 20

Sorkedal, Nansen visits, 41, 42, 44

Sorrento, Nansen at, 107, 108

Sound Expedition of 1861, 245

South Pole, land-ice at, 143, 145

Spain, Count Jarlsberg's adventures
in, 8 ; and the zoological station at
Naples, 110

Spiaggia di Chiaja, Naples, 100

Spitzbergen (or Grenland), 5, 58, 135,
146, 156, 165 11., 242, 246, 252-254,
260, 263-265, 267, 269, 271, 273, 274,
276, 277, 280, 351-356

Stalheimskleven, 89

Stan Durnova (Nansen depot), 332,
336, 337, 338, 339, 340

Stanley, and the Fe^rt medal, 290

Stavanger, 12, 13, 17

Steen, Aksel S., 274

Steenstrup, K. J. V., 126

Steffens. Henrik, 16

Stockholm, 163, 182, 323

Stone ice, 153

Storfiord, 265, 266, 275

Strasburg University and the zoologi-
cal station at Naples, 110

Stubdal, 46

Svartdal Peak, Nansen's experiences
on, 47,48

Svarten (the Black Lake), 44

Svartebugta, Nansen's new house at,
294

Svartisen Glacier, 128

Sverdriip, Captain Otto Neumann), 87,
172, 177, 181, 187, 188, 194, 195, 197,
211, 221, 361, 366, 367, 374, 378, 385

Sviatoi-Nos, 325, 336, 343, 345

Sweden, her troubles with Norway, 11 ;
her erratic blocks and glacier de-
posits, 139-142

Swedes, their exploration of Green-
land, 124

Swedish Academy of Science, its
medals for geographical discoveries,
269

Swedish Anthropological and Geo-
graphical Society, 289, 290

Swedish Arctic expeditions, 127, 135,
271

Swedish Foreland, 271

' Swedish Stone,' the. at Llitzen, 139,
140

Switzerland and the zoological station
at Naples, 110

Sylva, 328

Tarim basin, 147

Tegethoff, the, exploration party, 225,
254

Tegner, E., his Fridtiofs Saga, 87

Teichner, H. von, the traveller, 326

Telemark, the peasants of, their method
of snow-shoeing, 28

Terror, the frigate, 240

Terschelling Island, 233

Tessiusak, 126

Thirty Years' War, share of the Wedels
in, 8

Thousand Islands, 266

Thule, probable meaning of the word,
226

Thumb Point, 270

Thyra, steamer, 178

Tigris, the, and the Flood, 141

Tobiesen, Swert Kristian, 265, 366, 270,
271 ; his tragic death, 272

Toll, Baron von, his theories regarding
North Siberia, 145 ; explorations in
the New Siberia Islands, 152, 325 ;
his theories on stone ice, 154 ; his
dog depots and other arrangements
on Nansen's behalf, 325, 326, 331-
333 ; letter to his wife on his
experiences, 333, 334 ; composition of
his crew, 334, 335 ; dog-sledging
experiences, 335, 336 ; establishes a
depot at Urassalach, 337, 341 ; and
at Stan Durnova, 338, 339 ; a case
of snow-blindness, 340, 341 ; the
journey from Kotelnoi to Micha
Stan, 342, 343 ; journey to the main-

INDEX.

401

land, 343-346 ; disposal of the dogs,
346 ; on New Siberia and the North
Pole, 348-357

Tonsberg (Norway), 8

Torell, Professor, on glacial deposits in
Northern Europe, 142, 143

Torgersen, Johan, 346

Torkildsen, Captain T., 269

Tornebohm, A. E., 279

Trana, Christian Christiansen, 172,
185, 189, 195

Troinizki, Mr. W., late G-overnor of
Tobolsk, 326

Tromsdal Peak, 384

Tromso, 242, 255, 282, 361, 372

Tromso Museum, 384

Trondheim, 11-12, 256

Trontheim, Alexander Ivanovitch, his
adventures and journey to Khaba-
rova, 326-328 ; his impression of
Nansen, 329, 330 ; presented with a
gold medal by Nansen, 330

Tryvand Heights, view from its tower,
37,46

Tschai-Powarnya, 336, 345, 346

Tschukotgkaia river, 339

Tundras period, 151

Ttmgnska, 352

Tuorda, Lars, and the exploration of
Greenland, 136

UiBAN, member of Baron von Toll's
exploration party, 335, 345

Ulve, Captain E. A., 269, 270, 271

Umivik, 187

Umiviksfiord, 187

Unicorn Bay, 266

Union Bay, 241

Upernivik, 126, 256, 259 n.

Ural Mountains, 146, 327, 351, 352

Urania schooner, 330

Urassalach (Nansen depot), 333, 837,
340, 841

Usva, 327

Vaage, in Gudbrandsdal, the mam-
moth in, 154

Vancouver, 239

Vardo, 255, 328, 381

Varna, steamship, 255

Vega, the, 258

Vega, the (Nordenskiold), expedition,
185, 231, 255, 259, 274

Vega, the, seal-hunter, 55, 58

Vega Medal, the, conferred on Nan-
sen, 290, 291

Veigabit, 5

Venice, her decline as a maritime
power, 281

Vesteraalen, the, 885

Vestfiord, 128, 858, 878

Vestmanna Islands, their lava peaks, 58

Via Caracciolo, Naples, 101

Victoria Medal, the, conferred on
Nansen, 291, 292

Victoria Strait, 244

ViMng, the, sealer, 20, 49-73

Vikings, the, their early Arctic explora-
tions, 226, 227

' Villa Nazionale,' Naples, 101, 102

Vinland, 227

Volga and the glacial theory, 144

Vosges, the, and the glacial theory, 144

Voss, schoolmaster, 32

Vosseskavlen, Nansen's successful
attack on, 91-96

Waigatz Strait, 267-269

Walther, Dr., 271

"Wardroper, Edward, and the sledge-
dogs for Nansen, 326, 327

Warkuta, 327

Warsaw and the glacial theory, 149

"Wedel, Gustav Wilhelm von (after-
wards Comit Jarlsberg), his life,
work, and family, 8, 9

Wedel-Jarlsberg, Count Herman, his
exploits, 8

"Wedel-Jarlsberg, Baron Christian
Frederik Vilhelm, grandfather of
Nansen, 9

Wedel-Jarlsberg, Miss Adelaide Jo-
hanna Isidora, mother of Nansen,
description of, 20-22 ; readiness of
resource, 24, 26, 42

Welhaven, the poet, 217, 220

Welhaven, the architect, 295

Wellington Channel, 241

Wener, Lake, 140

Werchojansk, in Siberia, temperature
of, 204

Werenskiold, E., artist, 287, 314, 377

West Spitzbergen, 266, 267

Weyprecht, the traveller, 250

Whale, Guldberg and Nansen's re-
searches regarding the, 120

Wliale Sound, 131, 231, 246

Whale's Point, 266

Wharton, Captain, 284, 285

D D

402

LIFE OF FEIDTIOF NANSEX

White Island, 267, 268

White Sea, 1, 2, 149, 228

Whymper, his exploration in Green-
land, 132, 135

Wiggins, Captain, the explorer, 283,
255, 284, 285, 326

Wilczek, Coimt, 254, 261

Wilkes Land, 265

Wille, Professor N., Ill, 161

Willeyn Barents, schooner, 275

WiUiam Island, 270

WiUoughby, the explorer, 228

Wiren, Professor A., his account of
Nansen's investigations as a biolo-
gist, 113

Woikara river, 327

Wolstenholme, a patron of Arctic
exploration, 261

Wrangel, explorer, 257

Wrangel Land, 258, 259

Wtilfing on dust, 207 n.

Wtirtemberg and the zoological sta-
tion at Naples, 110

Yakutsk, 259, 332, 334

Yalmal, 269

Yana river, 332

Yenisei river, 135, 163, 255, 256, 273,

275, 284, 326, 352
Ynier, cited, 291
Young, Sir AUen, 284, 285
Yugor Strait, 267, 270, 325-328

Zealand, invaded by King Karl
Gustav, 6 ; myth concerning, 140

Zoological Station at Naples, Nansen
at, 100 ; its surroimdings, 101 ; the
story of its creation, 101-104 ; imi-
tations of, 105 ; described by Nansen,
105-107 ; its imiqiie position, 109 ;
international character of its organi-
sation, 109, 110; the Scandinavian
countries and, 110

Zootomic museum of Christiania Uni-
versity, 289

riUNTED BY

SrOTTlSWOODE AND CO., NKWSTEEET SQUAllE

LONDON'

H Classifieb Catalogue

OF WORKS IN

GENERAL LITERATURE

PUBLISHED BY

LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.G.

91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, and 32 HORNBY ROAD, BOMBAY.

INDEX OF AUTHORS.

Page Page

Page Paee

Abbott (Evelyn) -

2, 13

Davidson ( W. L.) - 10, 12

Lecky (W. E. H.)

4. 14

Roget (Peter M.) - - 12

I 19

(T. K.) -

De la Saussaye (C.) - 24

Lees (J. A.) -

7,21

Romanes (G. J.) 6, 11, i--

. 24

(E. A.) -

Deland (Mrs.) - - 15, 20

Lejeune (General)

Ronalds (A.)

Acland (A. H. D.)

Dent (C. T.) - - 8

Lemon (Ida)

Roosevelt (T.) -

Acton. (Eliza)

De Salis (Mrs.) - - 21

Leonard (A. G.) -

Rossetti (M. F.) - - 21

1 23

Acwor'th (H. A.) -

De Tocqueville (A.) - 2

Lewes (G. H.)

Saintsburv (G.) -

iEschylus - - -

Devas (C. S.) - - u, 12

Lodge (H, C.) -

Scott-Mohtagu (Hon. J.)

Albemarle (Earl of)

Dickinson (G. L.) - 3

Loftie (W. J.)

Seebohm (F.)

4,6

Alden (W. L.) -

DougalKL.)- - - 15

Longman (C. J.) - 8

1 9, 23

Selous (F. C.)

Allingham (W.) -

14, 22

Dowell (S.) - - - 12

(F. W.) - -

Sewell (Eliz. M.) -

Anstey (F.) -

Doyle (A. Conan) - 16

(G. H.)- - -

Shakespeare

Aristophanes

Ellis (J. H.) - - - g

Lubbock (Sir John)

Shand (A. L)

Aristotle - - -

Ewald (H.) - - - 3

Lvall (Edna)

Sharpe (R. R.) -

Armstrong (E.) -

Falkener (E.) - - 9

Lyttelton (Hon. R. H.)

Shearman (M.) -

(G. F. Savage) -

Farnell (G. S.) - - 13

Lytton (Earl of) -

Sheppard (Edgar)

(E. J.) - - 5.

14, 22

Farrar (Dean) - - 12, 16

Macaulay (Lord) - 4,

14, 21

Sinclair (A.) -

Arnold, (E. Lester)

Fitzpatrick (W. J.) - 3

Macdonald (George) -

Smith (R. Bosworth) -

(Sir Edwin) - 6,

14, 20

Fitzwygram (Sir F.) - 7

Macfarren (Sir G. A.) -

(W. P. Haskett) -

(Dr. T.) - -

Ford (H.) - - . g

Mackail (J. W.) -

Solovyoff(V. S.)-

Ashley (W. J.) -

Fowler (Edith H.) - 16

Mackinnon (J.) -

Sophocles - - -

Aster (J. J.) -

, 15

Francis (Francis) - 9

Macleod (H. D.) -

12, 21

Soulsby (Lucy H.)

Atelier du Lys (Author o

f) 20

Freeman (Edward A.) - 3

Macpherson (H. A.) -

Stanley (Bishop) -

Babington (W. D.) -

Froude (James A.) 3, 5, 7, 16

Maher (M.) -

Steel (A. G.)

Bacon - - - -

5, 10

Furneaux (W.) - - 17

Malleson (Col. G. B.) -

(J.H.) -

Bagehot (W.) - 5,

12, 22

Gardiner (Samuel R.) - 3

Marbot (Baron de)

Stephen (Sir James) -

Bagwell (R.)

Gerard (D. ) - - 16

Marshman (J. C.)
Martineau (James)

(Leslie)

Bain (Alexander) -

Gibson (Hon. H.) - 9

Stephens (H. Morse) -

Baker (James)

Gilkes (A. H.) - - 16

Maskelyne (J. N.)

(W. W.)

(Sir S. W.) -

6, 8

Gleig (G. R.) - - 6

Matthews (B.)

Stevens (R. W.) -

Balfour (A. J.) -

8, 24

Goethe - - - - 14

Maunder (S.)

Stevenson (R. L.) - 17

Ball (J. T.) -

Graham (P. A.) - - 18

Max Miiller (F.) 11, 12,

23, 24

Stock (St. George)

Baring-Gould (Rev. S.)

(G.F.)- - - 12

May (Sir T. Erskine) -

' Stonehenge '

Barnett (Rev. S. A. & Mrs.) 12

Grant (Sir A.) - - 10

Meade (L. T.) -

Stuart- Wortley (A. J.)

Battye (Aubyn Trevor)

Graves (R. P.) - - 5

Melville (G. J. Whyte)

Stubbs (J. W.) -

Baynes (T. S.) -

Green (T. Hill) - - 10

Merivale (Dean) -

Sturgis (J.) -

Suifolk & Berkshire (Earl 0

Beaconsfield (Earl of) -

Greville (C. C. F.) - 3

Mill (James)

f)8

Beaufort (Duke of)

Grey (Mrs. W.) - - 20

— — (John Stuart)

II, 12

Sullivan (Sir E.) -

Becker (Prof.) -

Grove (F. C.) - - 8

Milner (G.) -

Sully (James)

Beesly (A. H.) -

(Mrs. Lilly) - - 8

Molesworth (Mrs.)

19, 20

Sutherland (A. and G.)

Bell (Mrs. Hugh) -

Gurney (Rev. A.)- - ' 14

Montague (F. C.)

Suttner (B. von) -

Bent (J. Theodore) -

Gwilt (J.) - - - 22

Moore (J. W.) -

Swinburne (A. J.)

Besant (Walter) -

Haggard (H. Rider) - 16

Mosso (A.) - - -

Symes (J. E.)

Bickerdyke (}.) -

Halliwell-Phillipps (J.) 6

Munk(W.) -

Tavlor (Meadows)

Bicknell (A. C.) -

Harte (Bret) - - 16

Murdoch (W. G.Burn)

Thorn (J. H.)

Bird (R.)

Hartwig(G.) - - 18

Murray (R. F.) -

Thomson (Archbishop)

Blackwell (Elizabeth) -

Hassall (A.) . - - 5

Nansen (F.) -

Todd (A.) -

Boase (C. W.) -

Haweis (Rev. H. R.) - 5

Nesbit (E.) -

Toynbee (A.)

Boedder (B.)

Hawker (Col. Peter) - 9

O'Brien (W.)

Trevelyan (Sir G. O.) -

5,6

Boulton (Helen M.) -

Hayward (J. M.) - - 18

Oliphant (Mrs.) -

TroUope (Anthony)

Boyd (A. K. H.) - 5,

22, 24

Hearn (W. E.) - - 3

Onalow (Earl of) -

Tvndall (J.) -

Brassey (Lady) -

Heathcote(J. M.&C.G.) 8

Osbourne (L)

Tyrrell (R. Y.) -

(Lord) - - 2, 7

8, 12

Helmholtz (Hermann von) 18

Palmer (A. H.) -

Upton (F. K. and Bertha)

Bray (C. and Mrs.) -

Herbert (W. V.) - - 3

Parr (Mrs. Louisa)

Van Dyke (J. C.) -

Bright (J. F.)

Hillier (G. Lacy)- - 8

Pavn (James)

Verney (Frances P. and

Broadfoot (W.) -

Hodgson (Shadworth H.) 10

Payne-Gallwey (Sir R.)

8,9

Margaret M.) -

Buckle (H. T.) -

Hornung (E. W.) - 16

Peary (Mrs. Josephine)

Virgil - - - -

Bull (T.) -

Howitt (W.) - - 7

Peek(H.) -

Wakeman (H. O.)

Burke (U. R.)

Hudson (W. H.) - - 18

Perring (Sir P., Bt.) -

Vi'alford (Mrs.) - - 6

Burrows (Montagu)

Hume (David) - - 10

Phillips (M.)

Walker (Jane H.)

Butler (E. A.)

Hunt (W.) - - - 3

Phillipps-WoUey (G.) -

8, 16

Walpole (Spencer)

(Samuel)

Hutchinson (Horace G.) 8

Piatt (S. & J. J.) -

Walsingham (Lord) -

Camobell-Walker (A.)-

Ingelow (Jean) - - 14, 20

Pole (W.) -

V/aher(J.) -

Cannan (E.)

James (C. A.) - - 22

Pollock (W. H.) -

Watson (A. E. T.) - i

Carmichael (J.) -

fefferies (Richard) - 21, 23

Poole (W.H. and Mrs.)

Webb(Mr.and Mrs. Sidney

Chesnev (Sir G.)

Jewett (S. 0.) - - 16!

Poore (G. V.)

Weir(R.) -

Chishofm (G. G.)

iq! Johnson (J. & T. H.) - 23!

Pritchett (R. T.) -

West (B. B.) - - 17,

Cholmondeley-Pennell (H.) 8

Joyce (P. W.) - - 3 j

Prince (Helen C.)

Wevman (Stanleyl

Cicero - - - -

Justinian - - - 10 1

Proctor (R. A.) - 9,

18,23

Whately (Archbishop)-

Clarke (R. F.)

Kalisch (M. M.) - - 24

Quillinan iMrs.) -

(E. Jane) -

Clegg (J. T.) - -

Kant (I.) - - - 10 j

Quintana (A.)

Whishaw (F. J.) - - 7,

Clodd (Edward) -

Kaye (Sir J. W.) - - 3 j

Raine (James)

Wiicocks (J. C.) -

Clutterbuck (W. J.) -

Kendall (May) - - 14 '

Ransome (Cyril) -

Wilkins (G.)-

Cochrane (A.)

KiUick (A. H.) - - 10

Rhoades (J.) - 13, 15,1

WiUich (C. M.) -

Comyn (L. N.) -

Kitchin (G. W.) - - 3

Rhoscornyl (O.) -

Wolff (H.W.) -

Conington (John)

Knight (E. F.) - - 3, 7i

Rich (A.)

Wood (J. G.)

Conybeare (W. J.) and

Kbstlin (J.) - - - 6

Richardson (Sir B. W.)

Wood<ate (W. B.)

Howson (Dean) -

Ladd (G. T.) - - II

Richman (I. B.) -

Wood-Martin (W. G.)

Cox (Harding) -

Lang (Andrew)

Rickaby (John) -

Wordsworth (Elizabeth)

Crake (A. D.)

3, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 19, 23

(Joseph)

WyUe (J. H.)

Creitrhton (Bishop)

2,3

Lascelles (Hon. G.) - 8, 9

Ridley (Aiinie E.)

Youatt (W.) -

Curzon (Hon. G. N.) -

Laurie (S. S.) - - 23

Riley (J. W.)

Zeller (E.) -

Cutts (E. L.)

Lear (H. L. Sidney) - 22

Robertson (A.)

CONTENTS.

ADMiNTON Library (The) - - . 8

Biography, Personal Memoirs, &c. - 5

Children's Books- - - - - 19
Classical Literature, Translation,

&c. 13

Cookery, Domestic Management, &c. - 21

Evolution, Anthropology, &c. - - 13

Fiction, Humour, &c. - - - - 15

Fur and Feather Series - - - 9
History, Politics, Polity, Political

Memoirs, &c. 2

Index of Authors . . . - i

Language, History and Science of - 12

Mental, Moral, and Political Philo-
sophy -..---

Miscellaneous and Critical Works -

Miscellaneous Theological Works -

Poetry and the Drama

Political Economy and Economics

Popular Science ....

Silver Library (The) - - . .

Si ort and Pastime ....

Travel and Adventure, the Colonies,
&c. ------ -

Veterinary Medicine, &c. -

Works of Reference - - - -

24
14

^7
20

History, Polities, Polity, Political Memoirs, &e.

Abbott. — A History of Greece.
By Evelyn Abbott, M.A., LL.D.
Part L — From the Earliest Times to the
Ionian RevoU. Crown 8vo., ids. 6rf.
Part II. — 500-445 B.C. Crown 8vo., los. 6rf.

Acland and Ransome. — A Hand-
book IN Outline of the Political His-
tory of England TO 1894. Chronologically
Arranged. By A. H. Dyke Acland, M.P.,
and Cyril Ransome, M.A. Crown 8vo., 6s.

ANNUAL REGISTER {THE). A

Review of Public Events at Home and

Abroad, for the year 1894. 8vo., i8s.

Volumes of the Annual Register for the

years 1863-1893 can still be had. 185. each.

Armstrong. — Elizabeth Earnese ;
The Termagant of Spain. By Edwakd Arm-
strong, M.A. 8vo., i6s.

Arnold (Thomas, D.D.), formerly
Head Master of Rugby School.
Introductory Lectures on Mod-
ern History. 8vo., 7s. 6d.
Miscellaneous Works. 8vo., 75. 6d.

Bagwell. — Ireland under the
I'UDORS. By Richard Bagwell, LL.D.
(3 vols.) Vols. I. and II. From the first
invasion of the Northmen to the year 1578.
8vo., 32s. Vol. III. 1578-1603. 8vo. i8s.

Ball. — Historical Review of the
Legislative Systems operative in Jre-
LAND^ from the Invasion of Henry the Second
to the Union (1172-1800). By the Rt. Hon.
J. T. Ball. 8vo., 65.

Besant. — The History of London.
By Walter Besant. With 74 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo., is. qd Or bound as a School
Prize Book, 2s. 6d.

Brassey (Lord). — Papers and Ad-
dkesses.

Naval and Maritime. 1872-1893.
2 vols. Crown 8vo., los.

Mercantile Marine and Naviga-
tion, from 1871-1894. Crown 8vo., 5s.

Brassey (Lord). — Papers and Ad-
dresses— Continued.

Imperial Eederation and Colon-
isation FROM 1880 to 1894. Cr. 8vo., 5s.

Political and Miscellaneous.
1861-1894. Crown 8vo 5s.

Bright. — A History of England.
By the Rev. J. Franck Bright, D.D.
Period I. Medijeval Monarchy: a.d.
449 to 1485. Crown 8vo., 45. 6^.

Period II. PERSONAL MONARCHY. I485 tO

to i588. Crown 8vo., 5s.
Period III. Constitutional Monarchy.

1689 to 1837. Crown 8vo., 7s. 6rf.
Period IV. The Growth of Democracy.

1837 to 1880 Crown 8vo., 6$-.

Buckle. — History of Civilisation
IN England and France, Spain and
Scotland. By Henry Thomas Buckle.
3 vols. Crown 8vo., 245.

Burke. — A History of Spain from
the Earliest Times to the Death of Ferdinand
the Catholic. By Ulick Ralph Burke,
M.A. 2 vols. 8vo., 32s.

Chesney. — Indian Polity: a View of
the System of Administration in India. By
General Sir George Chesney, K.C.B.,
With Map showing all the Administrative
Divisions of British India. 8vo., 215.

Creighton. — Historyof the Papacy
during the Reformation By Mandell
Creighton, D.D., LL.D., Vols. I. and II.,
1378-1464, 32s. Vols. III. and IV., 1464-
1518, 24s. Vol. v., 1517-1527, 8vo., 155.

Curzon. — Persia and the Persian
Question. By the Hon. George N.
Curzon, M.P. With g Maps, 96 Illustra-
tions, Appendices, and an Index. 2 vols.
Svo., 42s.

De Tocqueville. — Democracy in
America. By Alexis de Tocqueville.
2 vols. Crown 8vo., i6s.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

History, Polities, Polity, Political Memoirs, ko, ,— continued.

Cr.

Dickinson. — The Development of

Parliament during the N ineteenth

Ceatury. ByG. Lowes Dickinson, M.A.

8vo, ys. 6d.
Ewald.— 7>/£' History of Israel.

By Heinrich Ewald. 8 vols. , 8vo., Vols.

L and IL, 24s. Vols. IIL and IV., 21s.

Vol. V.,i8s. Vol. VL, 165. Vol. Vn.,2is.

Vol. VIIL, 185.
Fitzpatrick. — Secret Service

under Pitt. By W. J. Fitzpatrick.

8vo., js. 6d.

Froude (James A.).
The History of England, from the
Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish
Armada.

Popular Edition. 12 vols. Cr. 8vo.
3s. 6d. each.

Silver Library Edition. 12 vols,
8vo. 35. 6d. each.
Lectures on the Council

Trent. Delivered at Oxford 18

8vo., i2y. 6d.
The Divorce of Catherine

Aragon. Crown Svo., 65.
The Spanish Story of the Ar-
mada., and other Essays. Cr. 8vo., 35. 6rf.
The English in Ireland in the

Eighteenth Century.

Cabinet Edition. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo., 185.

Silver Library Ed. 3vols. Cr.8vo.,ios.6rf.
English Seamen in the Sixteenth

Century. Cr. 8vo., 6s.
Short Studies onGrea t Subjects.

4 vols. Cr. 8vo., 35. ^d. each.
Cmsar : a Sketch. Cr. 8vo, 35. 6d.

Gardiner (Samuel Rawson, D.C.L.,

LL.D.).
History of England, from the Ac-
cession of James L to the Outbreak of the
Civil War, 1603-1C42. 10 vols. Crown
8vo., 6s. each.

A History of the Great Civil
War, 1642-1649. 4 vols. Cr. 8vo., 6s. ea.

A History of the Commonwealth
AND THE Protectorate. 1649-1660.
Vol.L 1649-1651. With i4Maps. Svo. ,21s.

The Student's History of Eng-
land. With 378 lUust. Cr. 8vo., 12s.
Also in Three Volinnes, price 4s. each.
Vol. I. B.C. 55 — A.D. 1509. 173 lUus.
Vol. IL 1509-1689. 96 Illustrations.
Vol. III. 1689-1885. 109 Illustrations.
Greville. — A Journal of the Reigns

OF King George IV., King William IV.,

and Queen Victoria. By Charles C. F.

Greville, formerly Clerk of the Council.

8 vols. Crown 8vo., 6s. each.

Oxford. By Rev. C. W.

Boase.
Winchester. By G.

Kitohin, D.D.
York. By Rev. James

Raine.
New York. By Theodore

Roosevelt.
Boston (U.S.) By Henry

Cabot Lodge.

Hearn. — The Government of Eng-
land : its Structure and its Development.
By W. Edward Hearn. Svo., i6s.

Herbert. — -The Defence of Plevna,
1877. Written by One who took Part in it.
By William V. Herbert. With Maps.
8vo., i8s.

Historic Towns. — Edited by E. A.

Freeman, D.C.L., and Rev. William Hunt,
M.A. With Maps and Plans. Crown 8vo.,
3s. td. each.

Bristol. By Rev. W. Hunt.

Carlisle. By Mandell
Creighton, D.D., Bishop
of Peterborough.

Cinque Ports. By Mon-
tague Burrows.

Colchester. By Rev. E. L.
Cutts.

Exeter. By E. A. Freeman

London. By Rev. W. J.
Loftie.

Joyce. — A Short History of Ire-
land, from the Earliest Times to 1608. By
P. W. Joyce, LL.D. Crown 8vo., los. 6rf.

Kaye and Malleson's Histories.

— History of the Sepoy War in India,
1837-1858. By Sir John W. Kaye,
K.'C.S.L, F.R.S. 3 vols. 8vo. Vol. i.,
i8s. ; Vol. IL, 20s. ; Vol. IIL, 20s.

History of the Indian Mutiny,
1857-1858. Commencing from the close
of the Second Volume of Sir John W.
Kaj'c's " History of the Sepoy War ".
By Colonel G. B. Malleson, C.S.I. 3
vols. 8vo. Vol. I. with Map, 20s. ; Vol.

II. with 4 Maps and Plans, 20s. ; Vol.

III. with 4 Maps, 20s.
Analytical Index to Sir John IV.

Kaye's " History of the Sepoy War "
and Col. G. B. Malleson' s " History
of the Indian Mutiny"". (Combined
in One Volume.) By Frederic Pincott,
Member of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Svo, los. 6(i.
Ka ye and Malleson s '■Historyof
the Indian Mutiny, 1S57-1858". (Being
a Cabinet Edition of the above Works.)
Edited by Colonel G. B. Malleson.
With Analytical Index by Frederic
Pincott, and Maps and Plans. 6 vols.
Crown 8vo., 6s. each.

Knight. — Madagascar in War
Time : The Experiences of ' The Times '
Special Correspondent with the
HovAS during the French Invasion
of 1895. By E. F. Knight. With
numerous Illustrations and Map.

Lang. — St. Andrews. By Andrew
Lang. With 8 Plates and 24 Illustrations
in the Text by T. Hodge. 8vo., 15s. net.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

History, Polities, Polity, Political Memoirs, &e. — continued.

Lecky (William Edward Hartpole)

History of England in the Eigh-

TEE1S.TH CeATURY.

Library Edition. 8 vols. 8vo., £"] 4s.
Cabinet Edition. ■ England. 7 vols.
Crown 8vo., 65. each. Ireland. 5
vols. Crovi^n 8vo., 6s. each.

History of European Morals
FROM Augustus to Charlemagne. 2
vols. Crown 8vo., i6s.

History of the JIise and Influ-
ence OF the Spirit of Rationalism in
Europe. 2 vols. Crown 8vo., i6s.

Democracy and Liberty. 2 vols.
8vo., 36s.

The Empire : its value and its
Growth. An Inaugural Address delivered
at the Imperial Institute, November 20,
1893. Cr. 8vo., IS. 6d.

Macaulay (Lord).
Complete Works.

Cabinet Edition. 16 vols. Post 8vo.,
£^ i6s.

Library Edition. 8 vols. 8vo., £s 5s.
History of 'England from the

Accession of James the Second.

Popular Edition. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo., 5s.

Student's Edition. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo., 12s.

People's Edition. 4 vols. Cr. 8vo., i6s.

Cabinet Edition. 8 vols. Post 8vo., 48s.

Library Edition. 5 vols. 8vo., £^.
Critical and Historical Essays,

WITH Lays of Ancient Rome, in i

volume.

Popular Edition. Crown 8vo., 2s. 6d.

Authorised Edition. Crown 8vo., 2s. 6d.,
or 3s. 6d., gilt edges.

Silver Library Edition. Cr. 8vo., 3s. bd.
Critical and Historical Essays.

Student's Edition, i vol. Cr. 8vo., 6s.
People's Edition. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo., 8s.
Trevelyan Edition. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo., gs.
Cabinet Edition. 4 vols. Post 8vo., 24s.
Library Edition. 3 vols. 8vo., 36s.

Essays which may be had separately
price 6d. each sewed, is. each cloth.

Addison and V/alpole.
Croker's Boswell's Johnson.
Hallam's Constitutional

History.
Warren Hastings. id.

sewed, 6rf. cloth.
The Earl of Chatham (Two

Essays).

Frederick the Great.

Ranke and Gladstone.

Milton and Machiavelli.

Lord Byron.

Lord Clive.

Lord Byron, and The

Comic Dramatists of

the Restoration.

Miscellaneous Writings

People's Edition. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo., 4s. 6d.
Library Edition. 2 vols. 8vo., 21s.
Miscellaneous Writings and
Speeches.

Popular Edition. Crown 8vo., 2s. 6<f.
Cabinet Edition. Including Indian Penal
Code, LaysofAncient Rome, and Miscel-
laneous Poems. 4 vols. Post 8vo., 24s.

Macaulay (Lord). — Works by

continued.

Selections from the Writings of-
Lord Macaulay. Edited, with Occa-
sional Notes, by the Right Hon. Sir G. O^
Trevelyan, Bart. Crown 8vo.,6s.

Mackinnon. — The Union of Eng-
land AND Scotland: a Study of
International History. By James
MACKINNON. Ph.D. Examiner in History
to the University of Edinburgh. 8vo., i6s.

May. — The Constitutional His-
tory of England since the Accession
of George III. 1760-1870. By Sir Thomas
Erskine May, K.C.B. (Lord Farnborough)>
3 vols. Cr. 8vo., i8s.

Merivale (the late Dean).

History of the Romans under

THE Empire.

Cabinet Edition. 8 vols. Cr. Svo., 48s.

Silver Library Edition. 8 vols. Crown
8vo., 3s. bd. each.
The Fall of the Roman Republic:

a Short History of the Last Century of the

Commonwealth. i2mo., 7s. bd.

Montague. — The Elements of
English Constitutional History. By
F. C. Montague, M.A. Crown 8vo.,
3s. bd.

Moore. — The American Congress :
a History of National Legislation and
Political Events, 1774-1895. By Joseph
West Moore. 8vo., 15s. net.

O'Brien. — Irish Ideas. Reprinted
Addresses. By William O'Brien. Cr.
Svo. 2s. 6d.

Richman. — Appenzell : Pure De-
mocracy and Pastoral Life in Inner-
Rhodbn. a Swiss Study. By Irving B.
Richman, Consul- General of the United
States to Switzerland. With Maps. Crown
8vo., 5s.

Seebohm (Frederic).

The English Village Community
Examined in its Relations to the Manorial
and Tribal Systems, &c. With 13 Maps
and Plates. 8vo., i6s.

The Tribal System in Wales:

Being Part of an Inquiry into the Struc-
ture and Methods of Tribal Society.
With 3 Maps. 8vo., 12s.

Sharpe.' — London and the Kingdom:]
a History derived mainly from the Archives.^
at Guildhall in the custody of the Corpora-
tion of the City of London. By Reginald
R. Sharpe, D.C.L., Records Clerk in the i
Office of the Town Clerk of the City ot '■
London. 3 vols. 8vo. los. 6rf. each.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

History, Polities, Polity, Political Memoirs, ho.,— continued.

Sheppard. — Memorials of St.
James's Palace. By the Rev. Edgar
Sheppard, M.A., Sub-Dean of H.M.
Chapels Royal. With 41 Full-page Plates (8
Photo-Intaglio) and 32 Illustrations in the
Text. 2 vols. 8vo., 36s. net.

Smith.— Carthage ANV the Carth-
aginians. By R. BoswoRTH Smith, M.A.,
With Maps, Plans, &c. Cr. 8vo., 35. td.

Stephens. — A History of the
French Revolution. By H. Morse
Stephens. 3 vols. Svo. Vols. I. and II.
185. each.

Stubbs. — History of the Univer-
sity OF Dublin, from its Foundation to
the End of the Eighteenth Century. By J.
W. Stubbs. 8vo., 125. 6d.

Sutherland.— The History of Aus-
tralia and New Zealaad, from 1606 to
i8go. By Alexander Sutherland, M.A.,
and George Sutherland, M.A. Crown
8vo., 2s. 6d.

Taylor. — A Student's Manual of
the History of India. By Colonel Mea-
dows Taylor, C.S.L, &c. Cr. 8vo., -js. 6d.

Todd. — Parliamentary Govern-
ment IN the British Colonies. By
Alpheus Todd, LL.D. 8vo., 305. net.

Wakeman and Hassall. — Essays

Introductory to the Study of English
Constitutional History. By Resident
Members of the University of Oxford.
Edited by Henry Offley Wakeman,
M.A., and Arthur Hassall, M.A. Crown
8vo., 6s.

Walpole (Spencer).
History of England from the
Conclusion of the Great War /a' 1815
TO 1858. 6 vols. Crown 8vo., 6j. each.
The Land of Home Rule : being
an Account of the History and Institu-
tions of the Isle of Man. Crown 8vo., 6s.
Wolff. — Odd Bits of History:
being Short Chapters intended to Fill Some
Blanks. By Henry W.Wolff. 8vo., 85. 6(f.
Wood-Martin. — Pagan Ireland :
AN Archasological Sketch. A Handbook
of Irish Pre-Christian Antiquities. By W.
G. Wood-Martin, M.R.I.A. With 512
Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 155.
Wylie. — History of England
UNDER Henry IV. By James Hamilton
Wylie, M.A., one of H. M. Inspectors of
Schools. 3 vols. Crown Svo. Vol. I., 1399-
1404, los. 6d. Vol. II., 15s. Vol. III., 15s.
[Vol. IV. In the press.

Biography, Personal Memoirs, &e

Armstrong. — The Life andLetters
OF Edmund J. Armstrong. Edited by
G. F. Armstrong. Fcp. 8vo., 7s. 6d.
Bacon. — The Letters and Life of
Francis Bacon, including all his Oc-
casional Works. Edited by James Sped-
DiNG. 7 vols. Svo., £^ 4s.
Bagehot. — Biographical Studies
By Walter Bagehot. Crown Svo., 3s. 6rf.
Blackwell. — Pioneer Work in
Opening the Medical Profession to
Women: Autobiographical Sketches. By
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. Cr. Svo., 6s.
Boyd (A. K. H., D.D., LL.D., Author
of 'Recreations of a Country Parson,' &c.).
Twenty- FIVE Years of St.
Andrews. 1865-1890. 2 vols. Svo.
Vol. I. 125. Vol. II. 155.
St. _ Andrews and Elsewhere :
Glimpses of Some Gone and of Things
Left. Svo., 15s.
The Last Years of St. Andrews :
September 1S90 to September 1895.
8vo., 155.

Buss. — Prances Mary Buss and
HER Work for Education. By Annie
E. Ridley. With 5 Portraits and 4 Illus-
trations. Crown Svo, 75. 6d.

Carlyle.— Thomas Carlyle : A His-
tory of his Life. By James Anthony
Froude.

1795-1S35. 2 vols. Crown Svo., 7s.
1834-1881. 2 vols. Crown Svo., 75.

Erasmus. — Life and Letters of
Erasmus. By James Anthony Froude.
Crown Svo., 6s.

Fox. — The Early History of
Charles James Fox. By the Right Hon.
Sir G. O. Trevelyan, Bart.
Library Edition. Svo., iSs.
Cabinet Edition. Crown Svo., 6s.

Halford. — The Life of Sir Henry
IIalford, Bart., G.C.H., M.D., F.P.S.,
President of the Royal College of Physicians,
Physician to George III., George IV.,
William IV., and to Her Majesty, Queen
Victoria. By William Munk, M.D.,
F.S.A. 8vo., I2s. 6d.

Hamilton.- — Life of Sir William
Hamilton. By R. P. Graves. 3 vols.
15s. each. Addendum. Svo., 6d. sewed.

Haweis (Rev. H. R., M.A.).
My Musical Life. With Portrait of

Richard Wagner and 3 Illustrations. Cr.

Svo., 7s. 6d.
Music and Morals. With Portrait

of the Author, and numerous Illustrations,

Facsimiles, and Diagrams. Crown 8vo.,

7s. 6d.
Lejeune. — The Memoirs of
General Lejeune, 1780-1814. Trans-
lated by Mrs. Arthur Bell (N.
D' An vers). \In preparation.

Havelock. — Memoirs of Sir Henry
Havelock, K. C. B. By John Clark
Marshman. Crown Svo., 3s. 6d.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Biography

Luther. — Life of Luther. By
Julius KSstlin. With Illustrations from
Authentic Sources. Translated from the
German. Crown 8vo., 7s. 6rf.

Macaulay.— ^^^ Life and Letters
OF Lord Macaulay. By the Right Hon.
Sir G. O. Trevelyan, Bart., M.P.

Pupular Edition, i vol. Cr. 8vo., as. 6d.

Student's Edition i vol. Cr. 8vo., 6s.

Cabinet Edition. 2 vols. Post 8vo., 12s.

Library Edition. 2 vols. 8vo., 36s.

Marbot. — The Memoirs of the
Baron db Marbot. Translated from the
French. Crown 8vo., 7s. bd.

Romanes. — The Life and Letters
of George John A'omanes, ALA., LL.D.,
F.R.S. Written and Edited by his Wife.
With Portrait and 2 Illustrations. Cr. 8vo.,
15s.

Seebohm. — TheOxford Reformers
— John Volet, Erasmus and Thomas
More : a History of their Fellow- Work.
By Frederic Seebohm. 8vo., 14s.

Shakespeare. — Outlines of the
Life of Shakespeare. By J. O. Halli-
well-Phillipps. With Illustrations and
Fac-similes. 2 vols. Royal 8vo., ;^i is.

Personal Memoirs, ha. —continued.

Shakespeare's True Life. By

James Walter. With 500 Illustrations by
Gerald E. Moira. Imp. 8vo., 21s.
Stephen. — Essays in Ecclesiasti-
cal Biography. By Sir James Stephen.
Crown 8vo., 7s. ^d.

Turgot. — The Life and Writings
OF Turcot, Comptroller-General of France,
1774-1776. Edited for English Readers by
W. Walker Stephens. 8vo., 12s. bd.

Verney. —Memoirs of the Verney
Family.
Vols. I. & II., During the Civil War.
By Frances Parthenope Verney. With
38 Portraits, Woodcuts and Fac-simile.
Royal 8vo., 42s.
Vol. III., During the Commonwealth.
1650-1660. By Margaret M. Verney.
With 10 Portraits, &c. Royal 8vo., 21s.
W a 1 f o r d. — Twelve English
Authoresses. By L. B. Walford. Crown
8vo., 4s. 6rf.

Wellington. — Life of the Duke

OF Wellington. By the Rev. G. R.

Gleig, M.A. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6rf.
Wolf. — The Life of Joseph Wolf,

Animal Painter. By A. H. Palmer.

With 53 Plates and 14 Illustrations in the

Text. 8vo., 21S.

Travel and Adventure, the Colonies, &e.

Arnold (Sir Edwin, K.C.I.E.).

Seas and Lands. With 71 Illus-
trations. Cr. 8vo., 3s. 6rf.

Wandering Words. With 45
Illustrations. 8vo., i8s.

East and West : Reprinted
Articles. With 41 Illustrations by R.
T. Pritchett. Svo., i8s.

A USTRALLA AS LT LS, or Facts
and Features, Sketches, and Incidents of
Australia and Australian Life with Notices
of New Zealand. Crown Svo., 5s.

Baker (Sir S. W.).

Eight Years in Ceylon. With 6
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 3s. 6rf.

The Rifle and the Hound in
Ceylon. With 6 Illus. Cr. Svo., 3s. bd.

Bent (J. Theodore, F.S.A.,F.R.G.S.).

The Ruined Cities of Mashona-
LAND : being a Record of Excavation
and Exploration in 1891. With Map, 13
Plates, and 104 Illustrations in the Text.
Crown 8vo., 3s. td.

The Sacred City of the Ethio-
pians : being a Record of Travel and
Research in Abyssinia in 1893. With 8
Plates and 65 Illustrations in the Text.
8vo., i8s.

Bicknell. — Travel and Adventure
IN Nor thern Q ueensland. By Arth u r
C. Bicknell. With 24 Plates and 22 Illus-
trations in the Text. Svo, 15s.

Brassey (the late Lady).

A Voyage IN THE' Sunbeam ;^ Our

LiOME ON THE OCEAN FOR ELEVEN

MOA THS.

Library Edition. With 8 Maps and
Charts, and 118 Illustrations. Svo. 21s.

Cabinet Edition. With Map and 56
Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 7s. 6d.

Silver Library Edition. With 66 Illustra-
tions. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d.

Popular Edition. With 60 Illustrations.
4to., 6d. sewed, is. cloth.

Sehool Edition. With 37 Illustrations.
Fcp., 2S. cloth, or 3s. white parchment.

Sunshine and Storm in the East.
Library Edition. With 2 Maps and 141

Illustrations. Svo., 21s.
Cabinet Edition. With 2 Maps and 114

Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 7s. 6d.
Popular Edition. With 103 Illustrations.

4to., 6d. sewed, is. cloth.
In the Trades, the Tropics, and
THE ' Roaring Forties. '
Cabinet Edition. With Map and 220

Illustrations. Crown Svo., 7s. M.
Popular Edition. With 183 Illustrations.

4to., &d. sewed, is. cloth.

Three Voyages in the ' Sunbeam'.
Popular Ed. With 346 Illust. 4to., 2s. td.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Travel and Adventure, the Colonies, &e. — continued.

Brassey. — Voyages and Travels
OF Lord Brassey, K.C.B., D.C.L., 1862-
1894. Arranged and Edited by Captain S.
Eardley-Wilmot. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo., 105.

Froude (James A.).

Oceana : or England and her Col-
onies. With 9 Illustrations. Crown 8vo.,
2s. boards, 2s. &d. cloth.

The English IN THE West Indies :
or, the Bow of Ulysses. With g Illustra-
tions. Crown 8vo., 2s. boards, 2s. 6d. cloth.
Howitt. — Visits to Remarkable

Places. Old Halls, Battle-Fields, Scenes,

illustrative of Striking Passages in English

History and Poetry. By William Howitt.

With 80 Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 35. 6rf.

Knight (E. F.).

The Cruise of the ' Alerte ' : the

Narrative of a Search for Treasure on the

Desert Island of Trinidad. With 2 Maps

and 23 Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 35. 6d.
Where Three Empires meet: a

Narrative of Recent Travel in Kashmir,

Western Tibet, Baltistan, Ladak, Gilgit,

and the adjoining Countries. With a

Map and 54 Illustrations. Cr. 8vo., 3s. 6d.
The ^Falcon' on the Baltic: a

Voyage from London to Copenhagen in

a Three-Tonner. With 10 Full-page

Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 3s. bd.

Lees and Clutterbuck.— B.C. 1887 :

A Ramble IN British Columbia. By J. A.
Lees and W. J. Clutterbuck. With Map
and 75 Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 3s. 5rf.

Murdoch. — From Edinburgh to
THE Antarctic : an Artist's Notes and
Sketches during the Dundee Antarctic Ex-
pedition of 1892-93. By W. G. BuRN-
MuRDOCH. With 2 Maps and numerous
Illustrations. 8vo., i8s.

Nansen (Fridtjof).

The First Crossing of Green-
land. With numerous Illustrations and
a Map. Crown 8vo., 35. Qd.

Nansen (Fridtjof). — contmued.
Eskimo Life. With 3 1 Illustrations.
8vo., 165.

Peary. — Mr Arctic journal: a
year among Ice-Fields and Eskimos. By
Josephine Diebitsch-Peary. With 19
Plates, 3 Sketch Maps, and 44 Illustrations
in the Text. 8vo., 12s.

Quillinan. — Journal of a Few
Months' Resideace in Portugal, and
Glimpses of the South of Spain. By Mrs.
Quillinan (Dora Wordsworth). New
Edition. Edited, with Memoir, by Edmund
Lee, Author of " Dorothy Wordsworth," &c.
Crown 8vo, 6s.

Smith. — -Climbing in the British
Isles. By W. P. Haskett Smith. With
Illustrations by Ellis Carr, and Numerous
Plans.

Part I. England. i6mo., 35, bd.

Part II. Wales and Ireland. i6mo.,

3s. bd.
Part III. Scotland. {In preparation.

Stephen. — The Flay- Ground of
Europe. By Leslie Stephen. New
Edition, with Additions and 4 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo., 6s. net.

THREE IN NOR WA Y. By Two
of Them. With a Map and 59 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo., 2s. boards, 2s. bd. cloth.

Tyndall. — The Glaciers of the
Alps : being a Narrative of Excursions
and Ascents. An Account of the Origin
and Phenomena of Glaciers, and an Ex-
position of the Physical Principles to which
they are related. By John Tyndall,
F.R.S. New Edition. With numerous
Illustrations. Crown Svo, 6s. bd. net.

Whishaw (Fred. J.).

Out of Doors in Tsarland : a Re-
cord of the Seeings and Doings of a
Wanderer in Russia. Crown Svo, js. bd.

The Romance of the Woods:
Reprinted Articles and Sketches. Crown
Svo. , 6s.

Steel (John Henry),

A Treatise on the Diseases of
THE Dog. With 88 Illustrations. Svo.,
los. bd.

A Treatise on the Diseases dF
THE Ox. With 119 Illustrations. Svo. , 15s.

A Treatise on the Diseases of
THE Sheep. With 100 Illustrations.

Svo., I2S.

Outlines of Equine Anatomy : a
Manual for the use of Veterinary Students
in the Dissecting Room. Cr. Svo., 7s. bd.

Veterinary Medicine, &e.

Fitzwygram. — Horses and

Stables. By Major-General Sir F. Fitz-
wygram, Bart. With 56 pages of Illustra-
tions. Svo., 2S. bd. net.

" Stonehenge." — The Dog in

Health and Disease. By " Stone-
henge ". With 78 Wood Engravings.
Svo., 7s. bd.
Youatt (William).

The Horse. Revised and Enlarged
by W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S. With 52
Wood Engravings. Svo., 7s. bd.
The Dog. Revised and Enlarged.
With 33 Wood Engravings. 8vo., 6s.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Sport and Pastime.

THE BADMINTON LIBRARY.

Edited by the Duke of Beaufort, K.G., assisted by Alfred E. T. Watson.
Crown 8vo., price los. 6d. each Volume.

Archery. By C. J. Longman, Col.
H. Walrond, Miss Legh and Viscount
Dillon. With 195 Illustrations.

Athletics and Football. By
Montague Shearman. With 51 Illus.

Big Game Shooting. By C. Phil-
lipps-Wolley, Sir Samuel W. Baker,
W. C. OswELL, F. C. Selous, &c.
Vol. L Africa and America. With 77

Illustrations.
Vol. II. Europe, Asia, and the Arctic

Regions. With 73 Illustrations.

Billiards. By Major W. Broad-
foot, R.E. With Illustrations, and Dia-
grams. \In the Press.

Boating. By W. B. Woodgate.
With 49 Illustrations and 4 Maps.

Coursing and Falconry. By
Harding Cox and the Hon. Gerald
Lascelles. With 76 Illustrations.

Cricket. By A. G. Steel, the
Hon. R. H. Lyttelton, Andrew Lang,
R. A. H. Mitchell, W. G. Grace, and
F. Gale. With 64 Illustrations.

Cycling. By the Earl of Albe-
marle and G. Lacy Hillier. With 59
Illustrations.

Dancing, By Mrs. Lilly Grove,
F.R.G.S., &c. With 131 Illustrations.

Driving. By the Duke of Beau-
fort. With 65 Illustrations.

Fencing, Boxing, and Wrestling.
By Walter H. Pollock, F. C. Grove,
C. Prevost, E. B. Mitchell, and
Walter Armstrong. With 42 Illustra-
tions.

Fishing. By H. Cholmondeley-
Pennell, the Marquis of Exeter,
Henry R. Francis, G. Christopher
Davies, R. B. Marston, &c.
Vol. I. Salmon, Trout, and Grayling.

With 158 Illustrations.
Vol. II. Pike and other Coarse Fish.

With 133 Illustrations.

Golf. By Horace G. Hutchin-
son, the Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P.,
Sir W. G. Simpson, Bart., Lord Well-
wood, H. S. C. Everard, Andrew Lang,
and other Writers. With 8g Illustrations.

Hunting. By the Duke of Beau-
fort, K.G., Mowbray Morris, the Earl,
of Suffolk and Berkshire, Rev. E.
W. L. Davies, Digby Collins, George
H. Longman, &c. With 53 Illustrations.

Mountaineering. By C. T. Dent,
Sir F. Pollock, Bart., W. M. Conway,
Douglas Freshfield, C. E. Mathews,
&c. With 108 Illustrations.

Facing AND Steeple-Chasing. By
the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire, W.
G. Craven, Arthur Coventry, and A.
E. T. Watson. With 58 Illustrations.

Riding and Polo. By Captain
Robert Weir, J. Moray Brown, the
Duke of Beaufort, K.G., &c. With
59 Illustrations.

Sea Fishing. By John Bicker-
eyke, W. Senior, A. C. Harmsworth,.
and Sir H. W. Gore-Booth, Bart. With
197 Illustrations.

Shooting. By Lord Walsing-
ham, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Bart.,
Lord Lovat, Lord C. Lennox Kerr,
the Hon. G. Lascelles, and A. J.
Stuart-Wortley.

Vol. I. Field and Covert. With 105 Illus-
trations.
Vol. II. Moor and Marsh. With 65 Illus-
trations.

Ska ting, Curling, Tobogganing^,
Ice-Sailing, and Bandy. By J. M.
Heathcote, C. G. Tebbutt, T. Max-
well Witham, the Rev. John Kerr..
With 284 Illustrations.

Swimming. By Archibald Sin-
clair and William Henry. With 119
Illustrations.

Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Backets
AND Fives. By J. M. and C. G. Heath-
cote, E. O. Pleydell-Bouverie, A. C.
Ainger, &c. With 79 Illustrations.

Yachting.

Vol. I. Cruising, Construction, Racing
Rules, Fitting-Out, &c. By Sir Edward
Sullivan, Bart., Lord Brassey,
K.C.B., C. E. Seth-Smith, C.B., &c.
With 114 Illustrations.

Vol. 11. Yacht Clubs, Yachting in America
and the Colonies, Yacht Racing, &c.
By R. T. Pritchett, the Earl of
Onslow, G.C.M.G., &c. With 195
Illustrations.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Sport and Pastime — continued.
FUR AND FEATHER SERIES.

Edited by A. E. T. Watson.
price 5s.

Crown 8vo.

The Partridge. Natural History by
the Rev. H. A. Macpherson ; Shooting,
by A. J. Stuart-Wortley ; Cookery, by
George Saintsbury. With 11 Illustra-
tions and various Diagrams in the Text.

The Grouse. Natural History by
the Rev. H. A. Macpherson ; Shooting,
by A. J. Stuart-Wortley ; Cookery, by
George Saintsbury. With 13 Illustrations
and various Diagrams, in the Text.

each Volume.

The Pheasant. Natural History by
the Rev. H. A. Macpherson ; Shooting,
by A. J. Stuart-Wortley ; Cookery, by
Alexander Innes Shand. With 10 Illus-
trations and various Diagrams.

The Hare. By the Hon. Gerald
Lascelles, &c. [/« preparation.

Wild Fowl. By the Hon. John
ScoTT-MoNTAGU, M.P., &c. [/w preparation.

The Red Deer. By Cameron of
Lochiel, Lord Ebrington, &c.

[/?2 preparation.

BADMINTON MAGAZINE OF

Sports and Pastimes {The). Edited by
Alfred E. T. Watson (" Rapier"). With
numerous Illustrations. Price 15. monthly.
Vol. I., August to December, 1895, price 65.

Bickerdyke. — Days of my Life on
Waters Fresh aivd Salt; and other
Papers. By John Bickerdyke. With
Photo-Etched Frontispiece and 8 Full-page
Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Campbell-Walker. — The Correct

Card : or, How to Play at Whist ; a Whist
Catechism. By Major A. Campbell-
Walker, F.R.G.S. Fcp. 8vo., 25. 6d.
DEAD SHOT{The): or, Sportsman's
Complete Guide. Being a Treatise on the Use
of the Gun, with Rudimentary and Finishing
Lessons on the Art of Shooting Game of all
kinds. Also Game-driving, Wildfowl and
Pigeon-shooting, Dog-breaking, etc. By
Marksman. Illustrated. Cr. 8vo., los. 6rf.

Ellis. — Chess Sparks ; or, Short and
Bright Games of Chess. Collected and
Arranged by J. H. Ellis, M. A. 8vo., 4s. 6d.

Falkener. — Games, Ancient and
Oriental, and How to Play Them. By
Edward Falkener. With numerous
Photographs, Diagrams, &c. 8vo., 215.

Ford. — The Theory and Practice
of Archery. By Horace Ford. New
Edition, thoroughly Revised and Re-written
by W. Butt, M.A. With a Preface by C.
J. Longman, M.A. Svo., 145.

Francis. — A Book on Angling : or,

Treatise on the Art ot Fishing in every
Branch ; including full Illustrated List of Sal-
mon Flies. By Francis Francis. With Por-
trait and Coloured Plates. Crown 8vo., 15s.

Gibson. — Tobogganing on Crooked
Puns. By the Hon. Harry Gibson. With
Contributions by F. de B. Strickland and
' Lady-Toboganner '. With 40 Illustra-
tions. Crown Svo., 6s.

Hawker. — The Diary of Colonel
Peter Hawker, Author of ' Instructions to
Young Sportsmen.' 2 vols. 8vo., 32s.

Lang. — Angling Sketches. By
Andrew Lang. With 20 Illustrations.
Cr. 8vo., 3s. 6d.

Longman. — Chess Openings. By
Frederick W. Longman. Fcp. 8vo., 2s. 6rf.

Maskelyne. — Sharps and Flats : a
Complete Revelation of the Secrets 01
Cheating at Games of Chance and Skill. By
John Nevil Maskelyne, of the Egyptian
Hall. With 62 Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Payne-Gallwey (Sir Ralph, Bart).

Letters to Young Shooters (First
Series). On the Choice and use of a Gun.
With 41 Illustrations. Crown 8vo., js. 6d.

Letters to Young SHOOTERs{Second
Series). On the Production, Preservation,
and Killing of Game. With Directions
in Shooting Wood-Pigeons and Breaking-
in Retrievers. With Portrait and 103
Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 12s. 6d.

Pole (W., F.R.S.).

The Theor y of the Modern Scien-
tific Game of Whist. Fcp. 8vo., is. 6d.

TheEvol utionof Whist: a Study of
the Progressive Changes which the Game
has "undergone. Cr. 8vo., 5s.

Proctor (Richard A.).
How TO Play Whist: with the
Laws and Etiquette OF 'Whist. Cr.
8vo., 3s. bd.
Home Whist: An Easy Guide to
Correct Play. i6mo., is.
Ronalds. — The Fly- Fisher's Ento-
mology. By Alfred Ronalds. With 20
coloured Plates. 8vo., 14s.
Wilcocks. — The Sea Fisherman:
Comprising the Chief Methods of Hook and
Line Fishing in the British and other Seas,
and Remarks on Nets, Boats, and Boating.
By J. C. Wilcocks. Illustrated. Cr. 8vo.,6s.

lo MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Mental, Moral, and

LOGIC, RHETORIC,

Abbott. — The Elements of Logic.
By T. K. Abbott, B.D, i2mo., 35.

Aristotle.

The Politics : G. Bekker's Greek
Text of Books L, IIL, IV. (VIL), with an
English Translation by W. E. Bolland,
M.A. ; and short Introductory Essays
by A. Lang, M.A. Crown 8vo., js. 6d.-

The Politics: Introductory Essays.
By Andrew Lang (from Bolland and
Lang's ' Politics '). Crown Svo., 2s. 6d.

The Ethics: Greek Text, Illustrated
with Essay and Notes. B}' Sir Alexan-
der Grant, Bart. 2 vols. 8vo., 32s.

The Nicomachean Ethics : Newly
Translated into English. By Robert
Williams. Crown 8vo., 75. 6rf.

An Introduction to Aristotle^ s
Ethics. Books I. -IV. (BookX. c.vi.-ix.
in an Appendix). With a continuous
Analysis and Notes. By the Rev. Edw.
MooRE, D.D., Cr. Svo. los. 6rf.

Bacon (Francis).
Complete Works. Edited by R. L.

Ellis, James Spedding and D. D.

Heath. 7 vols. 8vo., £'3 13s. 6rf.
Letters and Life, including all his

occasional Works. Edited by James

Spedding. 7 vols. 8vo., ^"4 45.
Z^^^s^^F^; with Annotations. By

Richard Whately, D.D. 8vo., ios. 6rf.
The Essays. Edited, with Notes,

by F. Storr and C. H. Gibson. Crown

Svo, 35. 6rf.
The Essays: with Introduction,

Notes, and Index. By E. A. Abbott, D.D.

2 Vols. Fcp.8vo.,6s. The Text and Index

only, without Introduction and Notes, in

One Volume. Fcp. Svo., 2s. 6rf.

Bain (Alexander, LL.D.).

Mental Science. Cr. 8vo., 65. 6d.

Moral Science. Cr. 8vo., 4s. 6d.

The two works as above can be had in one

volume, price 10s. 6d.

Senses and the Intellect. 8vo.,

15s.
Emo tions a nd the Will . 8 vo . , 1 5 5 .
Logic, Deductive and Inductive.

Part I. 4s. Part II. 6s. 6rf.
Practical Essays. Cr. 8vo., 35.

Bray (Charles).

The PiriLosoPHY of Necessity : or,

Law in Mind as in Matter. Cr. Svo,, 5s.

The Ed uca tion of the Feelings : a

Moral System for Schools. Cr. Svo., 25. 6rf.

Political Philosophy.

PSYCHOLOGY, ETC.

Bray. — Elements of Morality, in
Easy Lessons for Home and School
Teaching. By Mrs. Charles Bray.
Crown Svo., is. 6d.

Davidson. — The Logic of Defini-
tion, Explained and Applied. By William
L. Davidson, M.A. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Green (Thomas Hill). — The Works

OF. Edited by R. L. Nettleship.
Vols. I. and II. Philosophical Works. Svo.,

i6s. each.
Vol. III. Miscellanies. With Index to the

three Volumes, and Memoir. 8vo., 21s.

Lectures on the Principles of '
Political Obligation. With Preface
by Bernard Bosanquet. Svo., 5s.

Hodgson (Shadworth H.).

Time and Space: A Metaphysical
Essay. Svo., i6s.

The Theory of Practice : an
Ethical Inquiry. 2 vols. 8vo., 24s.

The Philosophy of Reflection.
2 vols. Svo., 21S.

Hume. — The Philosophical Works
of David Hume. Edited by T. H. Green
and T. H. Grose. 4 vols. Svo., 56s. Or
separately. Essays. 2 vols. 28s. Treatise
of Human Nature. 2 vols. 28s.

Justinian. — The Institutes of
Justinian: Latin Text, chiefly that ot
Huschke, with English Introduction, Trans-
lation, Notes, and Summary. By Thomas
C. Sandars, M.A. Svo., iSs.

Kant (Immanuel).

Critique of Practical Peas on,
and Other Works on the Theory of
Ethics.. Translated by T. K. Abbott,
B.D. With Memoir. 8vo., 12s. 6d.

Fundamental Principles of the
Mbtapiiysic of Ethics. Translated by
T. K. Abbott, B.D. (Extracted from
' Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and
other Works on the Theory of Ethics.')
Crown 8vo, 3s.

Introduction to Logic, and his
Essay on the Mistaken Subtilty of
THE Four Figures.. Translated by T.
K. Abbott. Svo., 6s.

K i 1 1 i C k. — Handbook to Mill's
Sysiem of Logic. By Rev. A. H.
KiLLiCK, M.A. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Mental, Moral and Political Philosophy — contimied.

Ladd (George Trumbull).

Philosophy of Mind : An Essay on
t^ie Metaphysics of Psychology. 8vo., ids.

ELEMENTS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PsY-
CilOLOGY. 8vO., 2IS.

Outlines of Physiological Psy-
chology. A Text-book of Mental Science
for" Academies and Colleges. 8vo., 12s.

Psychology, Descriptive and Ex-
PLANA TORY : a Treatise of the Phenomena,
Laws, and Development of Human Mental
Lif(^. 8vo., 21S.

Primer of Psychology. Cr. 8vo.,
55. 6rf.

Lewes. — The History of Philoso-
phy, from Thales to Comte. By George
Henry Lewes. 2 vols. 8vo., 325.

Max Miiller (F.).
The Science of Thought. 8vo., 2 15.
Thre£ Introductory Lectures on
the Science of Thought. 8vo., is. 6d.

Mill. — Analysis of the Phenomena
OF THE Human Mind. By James Mill.
2 vols. 8vo., 285.

Mill (John Stuart).
A System OF Logic. Cr. 8vo., 35. 6f?.
On Liberty. Crown 8vo., 15. \d.
On Kepresenta tive Government.

Crown 8vo., 25.
Utilitarianism. 8vo., 25. 6d.
Examination of Sir William

H amilton' s Philosophy. 8vo., i6s.
Nature, the Utility of Religion,

AND Theism. Three Essays. 8vo., 5s.

Mosso. — Fear. ByANGELO Mosso.
Translated from the Italian by E. Lough
and F. Kiesow. With 8 Illustrations. Cr.
8vo., 7s. 6d.

Romanes. — Mind and Motion and
Monism. By the late George John
Romanes, LL.D., F.R.S. Cr. 8vo., 4s. 6d.

Stock. — Deductive Logic. By St.
George Stock. Fcp. 8vo., 3s. 6c/.

Sully (James).

The Human Mind : a Text-book of
Psychology. 2 vols. 8vo., 215.

Outlines OF Psychology. 8vo., gs.

The Teacher's Handbook Of Psy-
chology. Crown 8vo., 5s.

Studies of Childhood. 8vo,

los. 6d.

Swinburne. — Picture Logic : an
Attempt to Popularise the Science of
Reasoning. By Alfred James Swinburne,
M.A. With 23 Woodcuts. Crown 8vo., 5s.

Thomson.— Outlines of the

Necessary Laws of Thought: a Treatise
on Pure and Applied Logic. By William
Thomson, D.D., formerly Lord Archbishop
of York. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Whately (Archbishop).
Bacon'' s Essays. With Annotations.

8vo., los. 6rf.
Elements of Logic. Cr. 8vo., 4s. bd.
Elements of Rhetoric. Cr. 8vo.,

45. 6rf.
Lessons ON Reasoning. Fcp. 8vo.,

IS. 6rf.

Zeller (Dr. Edward, Professor in the
University of Berlin).

The Stoics, Epicureans, and
Sceptics. Translated by the Rev. O. J.
Reichel, M.A. Crown 8vo., 15s.

Outlines of the History of
Greek Philosophy. Translated by
Sarah F. Alleyne and Evelyn
Abbott. Crown 8vo., los. 6d.

Plato and the Older Academy.
Translated by Sarah F. Alleyne and
Alfred Goodwin, B.A. Crown 8vo.
i8s.

Socrates and the Socratic
Schools. Translated by the Rev. O.
J. Reichel, M.A. Crown 8vo., los. 6d

MANUALS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY.

(Stonyhurst Series).

A Manual of Political Economy.
By C. S. Devas, M.A. Crown 8vo., 6s. 6d.

First Principles of Knowledge.
By John Rickaby, S.J. Crown 8vo., 5s.

General Metaphysics. By John
Rickaby, S.J. Crown 8vo., 5s.

LdGic. By Richard F. Clarke, S.J.
Crown 8vo., 5s.

Moral Philosophy {Ethics and
Natural Law). By Joseph Rickaby, S.J.
Crown 8vo., 5s.

Natural Theology. By Bernard
Boedder, S.J. Crown 8vo., 6s. 6rf.

Psychology. By Michael Maher,
S.J. Crown 8vo., 6s. 6rf.

12 MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

History and Science of Language, &c.

Max Miiller (F.) — continued.

Davidson. — Leading and Import-
ant English Words : Explained and Ex-
exmplified. By William L. Davidson,
M.A. Fcp. 8vo., 3s. Qd.

Far r ar. — La ng ua ge a nd La ng ua ges :

By F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S. Crown
8vo., 6s.

Graham. — English Synonyms,
Classified and Explained : with Practical
Exercises. By G. F. Graham. Fcp. 8vo., 6s.

Max Miiller (F.).
The Science OF Language. — Found-
ed on Lectures delivered at the Royal In-
stitution in 1861 and 1863. 2 vols. Crown
8vo., 2 IS.

Biographies of Words, and the
Home of the Aryas. Crown 8vo., 7s. 6d.

Three Lectures on the Science
OF Language, and its Place in
General Education, delivered at Ox-
ford, i88g. Crown 8vo., 3s.

R O g e t. — Thesa ur us of English
Words and Phrases. Classifisd and
Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression
of Ideas and assist in Literary Composition.
By Peter Mark Roget, M.D., F.R.S.
Recomposed throughout, enlarged and im-
proved, partly from the Author's Notes, and
with a full Index, by the Author's Son,
John Lewis Roget. Crown 8vo. los. 6rf.

Whately. — English Synonyms.
E. Jane Whately. Fcp. 8vo., 3s.

Political Economy and Economics.

Ashley. — English Economic His-
tory and Theory. By W. J. Ashley,
M.A. Crown 8vo., Part I., 5s. Part II.
los. ()d.

Bagehot. — Economic Studies. By
Walter Bagehot. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d.

Barnett. — Practicable Socialism.
Essays on Social Reform. By the Rev. S.
A. and Mrs. Barnett. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Brassey. — Papers and Addresses
ON Work and Wages. By Lord Brassey.
Edited by J. Potter, and with Introduction
by George Howell, M.P. Crown 8vo., 5s.

Devas. — A Manual of Political
Economy. By C. S. Devas, M.A, Cr. 8vo.,
6s. 6d. [Manuals of Catholic Philosophy .)

Dowell. — A History of Taxation
and Taxes in England, from the Earliest
Times to the Year 1885. By Stephen
Dowell, (4 vols. 8vo.) Vols. I. and II.
The History of Taxation, 21s. Vols. III.
and IV. The History of Taxes, 21s.

Handbooks of Economics and
Political Science. Issued under the
auspices of the London School of
Economics and Political Science.

The History of Local Rates in
England. By Edwin Cannan, M.A.
Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d.

*,* Other Volumes of this Series are in
preparation.

Macleod (Henry Dunning).
BiMETALiSM. 8vo., 55. net.

The Elements of Banking. Cr.

8vo. , 3s. 6rf.
The Theory and Practice of

Banking. Vol. I. 8vo., 12s. Vol.11. 14s.
The Theory of Credit. 8vo.

Vol. I., ios.net. Vol. II., Parti., ios.net.

Vol. II., Part II., los. 6J.

A Digest of the Law of Bills
OF Exchange, Bank-notes, &c.

[In the press.

Mill. — Political Economy. By
John Stuart Mill.

Popular Edition. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6rf.
Library Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. , 30s.

Symes. — Political Economy: a
Short Text-book of Political Economy.
With Problems for Solution, and Hints for
Supplementary Reading. By Professor
J. E. Symes, M.A., of University College,
Nottingham. Crown 8vo., 2s. M.

Toynbee. — Lectures on the In-
dustrial Revolution of the 18th Cen-
tury IN England: Popular Addresses,
Notes and other Fragments. By Arnold
Toynbee. With a Memoir of the Author
by Benjamin Jowett, D.D. 8vo., los. bd.

Webb. — The History of Trade
Unionism. By Sidney and Beatrice
Webb. With Map and full Bibliography of
the Subject. 8vo., i8s.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 13

Evolution, Anthropology, &e.

Babington. — Fallacies of Race
Theories as Applied to National
Characteristics. Essays by William
Dalton Babington, M.A. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Clodd (Edward).

The Story of Creation : a Plain
Account of Evolution. With 77 Illustra-
tions. Crown 8vo., 3s. bd.

A Primer of Evolution : being a
Popular Abridged Edition of ' The Story
of Creation '. With Illustrations. Fcp.
8vo'., IS. 6J.

Lang. — Custom and Myth : Studies
of Early Usage and Belief. By Andrew
Lang. With 15 Illustrations. Crown 8vo.,
3s. 6(f.

Lubbock. — The Origin of Civilisa-
tion, and the Primitive Condition of Man.
By Sir J. Lubbock, Bart., M.P. With 5
Plates and 20 Illustrations in the Text.
8vo., i8s.

Romanes (George John, LL.D.,
F.R.S.).
Darwin, and after Darwin: an
Exposition of the Darwinian Theory, and a
Discussion on Post- Darwinian Questions.
Part I. The Darwinian Theory. With
Portrait of Darwin and 125 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo., los. 6rf.
Part II. Post- Darwinian Questions:
Heredity and Utility. With Portrait of
the Author and 5 Illus. Cr. 8vo., los. 6rf.
An Examination of Weismann-
ISM. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Classical Literature, Translations, &e.

Abbott. — Hellenica. a Collection
of Essays on Greek Poetry, Philosophy,
History, and Religion. Edited by Evelyn
Abbott, M.A., LL.D. 8vo., i6s.

.^SChyluS. EUMENIDES OF JESCHY-

LUS. With Metrical English Translation.
By J. F. Davies. 8vo., 7s.

Aristophanes. — The Acharnians

OF Aristophanes, translated into English
Verse. By R. Y. Tyrrell. Crown 8vo., is.

Becker (Professor).

Gallus : or, Roman Scenes in the
Time of Augustus. Illustrated. Post
8vo., 3s. &d.

Charicles : or, Illustrations of the
Private Life of the Ancient Greeks.
Illustrated. Post 8vo., 3s. 6rf.

Cicero. — Cicero's Correspondence.
By R. Y. Tyrrell. Vols. I., II., III., 8vo.,
each I2S. Vol. IV., 15s.

Farnell. — Greek Lyric Poetry:
a Complete Collection of the Surviving
Passages from the Greek Song- Writing.
Arranged with Prefatory Articles, Intro-
ductory Matter and Commentary. By
George S. Farnell, M.A. With 5 Plates.
8vo., i6s.

Lang^. — Homer and the Epic. By
Andrew Lang. Crown 8vo., gs. net.

Mackail. — Select Epigrams from
THE Greek Anthology. By J. W. Mac-
kail, Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.
Edited with a Revised Text, Introduction,
Translation, and Notes. 8vo., i6s.

Rich. — A Dictionary OF PoMAN and
Greek Antiquities. By A. Rich, B.A,
With 2000 Woodcuts. Crown 8vo., 7s. 6d.

Sophocles. — Translated into English
Verse. By Robert Whitelaw, M.A.,
Assistant Master in Rugby School ; late
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Crown 8vo., 8s. 6d.

Tyrrell. — -Transla tionsinto Greek
and Latin Verse. Edited by R. Y.
Tyrrell. 8vo., 6s.

Virgil.

The ^neid of Virgil. Translated
into English Verse by John Conington.
Crown 8vo., 6s.

The Poems of Virgil. Translated
into English Prose by John Conington.
Crown 8vo., 6s.

The ^neid of Virgil, freely trans-
lated into English Blank Verse. By
W. J. Thornhill. Crown 8vo., 7s. 6rf.

The ^neid of Virgil. Books I.
to VI. Translated into English Verse
by James Rhoades. Crown 8vo., 5s.

Wilkins. — The Growth of the
Homeric Poems. By G. Wilkins. 8vo.,6s.

MESSRS, LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Poetry and

Acworth. — Ballads of the Mara-

THAS. Rendered into English Verse from

the Marathi Originals. By Harry Arbuth-

NOT Acworth. 8vo., 5s.
Allingham (William).

Irish Songs and Poems. With
Frontispiece of the Waterfall of Asaroe.
Fcp. 8vo., 65.

Laurence Bloomfield. With Por-
trait of the Author. Fcp. 8vo., 35. ^d.

Flower Pieces ; Day and Night
Songs; Ballads. With 2 Designs by
D. G. RossETTi. Fcp. Bvo., 65. large
paper edition, 12s.

Life and Phantasy : with Frontis-
piece by Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., and
Design by Arthur Hughes. Fcp. 8vo.,
6s. ; large paper edition, 12s.

Thought and Word, and Ashby
Manor: a Play. Fcp. 8vo., 65.; large
paper edition, 125.

Blackberries. Imperial i6mo., 6s.

Sets of the above 6 vols, may he had in uni-
form Half -parchment binding, price 30s.

Armstrong (G. F. Savage).
Poems : Lyrical and Dramatic. Fcp.

8vo., 65.
King Saul. (The Tragedy of Israel,

Part L) Fcp. 8vo., 5s.
King David. (The Tragedy of Israel,

Part n.) Fcp. 8vo., 6s.
King Solomon. (The Tragedy of

Israel, Part HL) Fcp. 8vo., 6s.
Ugone : a Tragedy. Fcp. 8vo., 65.
A Garland from Greece : Poems.

Fcp. Bvo., 7s. 6d.
Stories OF Wickloiv: Poems. Fcp.

8vo., js. 6d.
Mephistopheles in Broadcloth :

a Satire. Fcp. Bvo., 4s.
One in the Infinite : a Poem.

Crown 8vo., 7s. bd.

Armstrong. — The Poetical Works
OF Edmund J. Armstrong Fcp. Bvo., 5s.

Arnold (Sir Edwin, K.C.I.E.).

The Light of the World : or the

Great Consummation. Cr. Bvo. , 7s. bd. net.
Potiphar's Wife, and other Poems.

Crown Bvo., 5s. net.
Adz u MA : or the Japanese Wife. A

Play. Crown Bvo., 6s. 6d. net.

T/iE Tenth Muse, and other Poems.
Crown 8vo., 5s. net.

Beesly. — Ballads and other

ViiRSE. By A. H. Bef.sly. Fcp. Bvo., 5s.

Bell. — Chamber Comedies : a Col-
lection of Plays and Monologues for the
Drawing Room. By Mrs. Hugh Bell.
Cr. Bvo., 6s.

the Drama.

Cochrane (Alfred),
The Kestrell' s Nest, and other

Verses. Fcp. Bvo., 3s. 6d.
Leviore Plectro : Occasional
Verses. Fcap. Bvo., 3s. 6rf.

Florian's Fables. — The Fables of

Florian. Done into English Verse by Sir
Philip Perring, Bart. Cr. 8vo., 3s. 6rf.

Goethe.

Faust, Part I., the German Text,
with Introduction and Notes. By Albert
M. Selss, Ph.D., M.A. Crown 8vo., 5s.

Faust. Translated, with Notes.
By T. E. Webb. Bvo., 12s. &d.

G u r n e y. — Da y-Dreams : Poems.

By Rev. Alfred Gurney, M.A. Crown
Bvo., 3s. 6d.
Ingelow (Jean).
Poetical Works. 2 vols. Fcp.

8vO., I2S.

Lyrical and other Poems. Selec-
ted from the Writings of Jf.an Ingelow.
Fcp. Bvo., 2s. 6d. cloth plain, 3s. cl. gilt.
Kendall. — Songs from Dreamland.

By May Kendall. Fcp. Bvo., 5s. net.
Lang (Andrew).

Ban and Arriere Ban : a Rally of
Fugitive Rhymes. Fcp. Bvo., 5s. net.

Grass of Parnassus. Fcp. 8vo.,
2s. 6(i. net.

Ballads of Books. Edited by
Andrew Lang. Fcp. Bvo., 6s.

The Blue Poetry Book. Edited
by Andrew Lang. With 100 Illustrations.
Crown Bvo., 5s.

Special Edition, printed on India paper.
With Notes, but without Illustrations.
Crown Bvo., 7s. 6d.
Lecky. — Poems. By W. E. H.

Lecky, M.P. Fcp. Bvo., 5s.

Lytton (The Earl of), (Owen
Meredith).

Ma RAH. Fcp. 8vo., 65, 6d.
King Poppy : a Fantasia. With i

Plate and Design on Title-Page by Ed.

Burne-Jones, A.R.A. Cr. Bvo., los. 6(f.
The Wanderer. Cr. 8vo., 105. 6d.
Lucile. Crown 8vo., los. 6rf.
Selected Poems. Cr. 8vo., 10s. 6d.
Macaulay. — La ys of Ancient Pome,
(Sr^c. By Lord Macaulay.
Illustrated by G. Scharf. Fcp. 4to., los. 6d.
Bijou Edition.

i8mo., 2s. 6d. gilt top.
Popular Edition.

Fcp. 4to., 6d. sewed, is. cloth.
Illustrated by J. R. Weguelin. Crown

Bvo., 3s. 6d.
Annotated Edition. Fcp. Bvo., is. sewed,

IS. 6d. cloth.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Poetry and the

Murray (Robert F.). — Author of
' The Scarlet Gown '. His Poems, with
a Memoir by Andrew Lang. Fcp. 8vo.,
5s. net.

Nesbit. — I^A rs and Legends. By E.
Nesbit (Mrs. Hubert Bland). First
Series. Crown Svo., 35. 6rf. Second Series.
With Portrait. Crown 8vo., 5s.

Peek (Hedley) (Frank Leyton).

Skeleton Leaves : Poems. With
a Dedicatory Poem to the late Hon.
Roden Noel. Fcp. 8vo., 2s. 6rf. net.

The Shadows of the Lake, and
other Poems. Fcp. Svo., 25 .6rf. net.

Piatt (Sarah),

An Enchanted Castle, and
Other Poems: Pictures, Portraits, and
People in Ireland. Crown Svo., 35. 6rf.

Poems : With Portrait of the
Author. 2 vols. Crown Svo., los.

Drama — continued.

Piatt (John James).
Idyls and Lyrics Df the Ohio
Valley. Crown 8vo., 5s.

Little New World Idyls
Svo., 55.

Rhoades. — Teresa and
Poems. By James Rhoades.
8vo., 3s. 6rf.

Riley (James Whitcomb).

Old Fashioned Roses :
i2mo., 5s.

Poems : Here at Home. Fcp. 8vo.,
6s. net.

Shakespeare. — Bowdler's Family
Shakespeare. With 36 Woodcuts, i vol.
8vo., 145. Or in 6 vols. Fcp. 8vo., 21s.

The Sha kespea re Bir thda y Book.
By M.\RY F. Dunbar. 32mo., 15. 6rf.

Sturgis. — A Book of Song. By

Julian Sturgis. i5mo. 5s.

Cr.

OTHER
Crown

Poems.

Works of Fiction, Humour, &e.

Alden. — Among the Freaks. By
W. L. Alden. With 55 Illustrations by J.
F. Sullivan and Florence K. Upton.
Crown Svo., 3s. 6rf.

Anstey (F., Author of 'Vice Versa ').

The Black Poodle, and other
Stories. Crown Svo., is. boards, 2s. 6rf.
cloth.

Voces Populi. Reprinted from
' Punch '. First Series. With 20 Illus-
trations by J. Bernard Partridge.
Crown Svo., 3s. 6d.

The Travelling Companions. Re-
printed from ' Punch '. With 25 Illust.
by J. Bernard Partridge. Post 4to., 5s.

The Man from Blankley's : a
Story in Scenes, and other Sketches.
With 24 Illustrations by J. Bernard
Partridge. Fcp. 4to., 6s.

Arnold. — The Story of Ulla, and
other Tales. By Edwin Lester Arnold.
Crown Svo., 6s.

Astor. — A Journey in other
Worlds : a Romance of the Future. By
John Jacob Astor. With 10 Illustrations.
Cr. Svo., 6s.

Baker. — By the Western Sea. By
James Baker, Author of John Westacott'.
Crown Svo., 3s. 6rf.

Beaconsfield (The Earl of).
Novels and Tales. Cheap Edition.
Complete in 11 vols. Cr. Svo., is. 6rf. each.
Vivian Grey. I Henrietta Temple.

The Young Duke, &c. | Venetia. Tancred.
Alro}', Ixion, &c. I Coningsby. Sybil.

ContariniFleming,&c. | Lothair. Endymion.

Novels and Tales The Hughen-
den Edition. With 2 Portraits and 11
Vignettes. 11 vols. Crown Svo., 42s.

Boulton. — -Josephine Crewe. By
Helen M. Boulton. Crown Svo., 6s.

Carmichael.— /'o^^/5. By Jennings

Carmichael (Mrs. Francis Mullisj.
Crown Svo, 6s. net.

Cleg"g. — David's Loom: a Story of
Rochdale life in the early years of the Nine-
teenth Century. By John Trafford
Clegg. Cr. Svo., 2s. 6rf.

Deland. — Philip and His Wife.
By Margaret Deland, Author of 'John
Ward'. Crown Svo., 6s.

Dougall (L.).
Beggars All. Cr. 8vo., 35. 6d.
What Necessity Knows. Crown
Svo., 6s.

i6 MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Works of Fiction,
Doyle (A. Conan).

MicAH Clarke: A Tale of Mon-
mouth's Rebellion. With lo Illustra-
tions. Cr. Svo., 3s. 6rf.

The Captain of the Folestar,
and other Tales. Cr. 8vo., 3s. 6d.

The Refugees : A Tale of Two Con-
tinents. With 25 lUus. Cr.'Svo., 3s. bd.

The Stark Munro Letters. Cr.
8vo, 6s,

Farrar (F. W., Dean of Canter-
bury).

Darkness and Dawn: or, Scenes
in the Days of Nero. An Historic Tale.
Cr. 8vo., 75. bd.

Gathering Clouds : a Tale of the
Days of St. Chrysostom. 2 vols., Svo., 28s.

Fowler. — The Young Pretenders.
A Story of Child Life. By Edith H.
Fowler. With 12 Illustrations by
Philip Burne-Jones. Crown 8vo. , 6s.

Froude. — The Two Chiefs of Dun-
boy: an Irish Romance ofthe Last Century.
By James A. Froude. Cr. 8vo., 3s. td.

Gerard. — An Arranged Marriage.
By Dorothea Gerard. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Gilkes. — The Thing That- Hath
Been : or, a Young Man's Mistakes. By
A. H. Gilkes, M.A. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Haggard (H. Rider).

Joan Haste. With 20 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo., 6s.

The People of the Mist. With
16 Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 6s.

Montezuma's Daughter. With 24
Illustrations. Crown Svo. , 3s. bd.

She. With 32 Illustrations. Crown
Svo., 3s. 6rf.

Allan Quatermain. With 31
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 3s. 6d.

Maiwa's Revenge : Crown Svo. , 15.
boards, is. td. cloth.

Colonel Quaritch, V.C. Cr. Svo.
3s. 6d.

Cleopatra. With 29 Illustrations.
Crown Svo., 3s. 6d.

Beatrice. Cr. Svo., 35. 6d.

Eric Brighteyes. With 51 Illus-
trations. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6rf.

Nada the Lily. With 23 Illustra-
tions. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6rf.

Allan's Wife. With 34 Illustra-
tions. Crown Svo., 3s. bd.

The Witch's Head. With 16
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 3s. bd.

Mr. Mffson's Will. With 16
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 3s. 6rf.

Dawn. With 16 Illustrations. Cr.
8vo., 3 J. M.

Humour, &e. — continued.

Haggard and Lang. — The World's

Desire. By H. Rider Haggard and
Andrew Lang. With 27 Illustrations.
Crown Svo., 3s. 6rf.

Harte. — Ln the Carquinez Woods

and other stories. By Bret Harte. Cr.
Svo., 3s. 6d.

Hornung. — The Unbidden Guest.
By E. W. Hornung. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d.

Jewett. — The Life of Nancy and
OTHER Stories. By Sarah Orne Jewett.
Crown Svo., 6s.

Lang. — A Monk of Fife ; being
the Chronicle written by Norman Leslie
of Pitcullo, concerning Marvellous Deeds
that befel in the Realm of France, 1429-31.
By Andrew Lang. With 13 Illustrations
by Selwyn Image. Cr. Svo., 6s.

Lemon. — Ma tthewFur th. By Ida

Lemon. Crown Svo., 6s.

Lyall (Edna).
The a utobiography of a Slander.
Fcp. 8vo., IS. sewed.
Presentation Edition. With 20 Illustra-
tions by Lancelot Speed. Crown
8vo., 2s. 6^. net.
DoREEN. The Story of a Singer.
Crown Svo., 6s.

Matthews. — His Father's Son: a
Novel of the New York Stock Exchange.
By Brander Matthews. With 13 Illus-
trations. Cr. Svo. 6s.

Melville (G. J. Whyte). Works by

The Gladiators. Holmby House.

The Interpreter. Kate Coventry.

Good for Nothing. Digby Grand.

The Queen's Maries. General Bounce.
Crown Svo., is. 6d. each.

Oliphant (Mrs).

Old Mr. Tredgold. Cr. Svo., 65.
Madam. Cr. Svo., is. 6d.
Ln Trust. Cr. Svo., 15. 6d.

Prince. — The Story of Christine
RocHEFORT. By Helen Choate Prince.
Crown Svo., 6s.

Payn (James).
The Luck of the Darrells. Cr.

Svo., IS. 6d.
Thicker than Water. Cr. Svo.,

IS. 6rf.

Phillipps-WoUey. — Snap: a Legend
ofthe Lone Mountain. By C. Phillipps-
Wolley. With 13 Illustrations. Crown
Svo., 3s. 6rf.

Quintana. — The Cid Campeador :

an Historical Romance. By D. Antonio
de Trueba y la Quintana. Translated
from the Spanish by Henry J. Gill, M.A.,
T.C.D. Crown Svo, 6s.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Works of Fiction, Humour, &e. — continued.

Rhoscomyl (Owen)
The Jewel of Ynys Galon : being
a hitherto unprinted Chapter in the History
of the Sea Rovers. Cr. 8vo., 6s.
Battlement and Tower : a
Romance. With Frontispiece by R.
Caton Woodville. Crown 8vo., 6s.
Robertso n. — Nuggets in the
Devil's Punch Bowl, and other AustraHan
Tales. By Andrew Robertson. Cr. 8vo.,
3s. 6d.
Sewell (Elizabeth M.).
A Glimpse of the World. Amy Herbert.
Laneton Parsonage. Cleve Hall.

Margaret Percival. Gertrude.

Katharine Ashton. Home Life.

The Earl's Daughter. After Life.

The Experience of Life. Ursula. Ivors.
Cr. 8vo., IS. 6rf. each cloth plain, is. 6d.
each cloth extra, gilt edges.
Stevenson (Robert Louis).
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde. Fcp. 8vo., is. sewed, is. 6rf.
cloth.
The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; with other
Fables. Crown 8vo., 6s. net.
More New Arabian Nights — The
Dynamiter. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6rf.

Stevenson and Osbourne. — The

Wrong Box. By Robert Louis Ste-
venson and Lloyd Osbourne. Cr. 8vo.,
3s. 6rf.
Suttner. — Lay Down Your Arms
{Die Waffen Nieder) : The Autobiography
of Martha Tilling. By Bertha von
Suttner. Translated by T. Holmes.
Cr. 8vo., IS. 6d.
Trollope (Anthony).

The Warden. Cr. 8vo., 15. 6d.
Barchester Towers. Cr. 8vo.,
IS. 6rf.
True (A) Relation of the Travels
AND Perilous Adventures of Mathew
Dudgeon, Gentleman : Wherein is truly
set down the Manner of his Taking, the
Long Time of his Slavery in Algiers, and
Means of his Delivery. Written by Himself,
and now for the first time printed. Cr. 8vo. , 5s.

Cr.

6^.

Cr.

8vo.,

Cr.

8vo.

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Fridtiof Nansen, 1861-1893"

See other formats